Eureka!
by Ol'Velsper
Summary: Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love Structural Analysis. In the wake of Kiritsugu Emiya's death, Taiga Fujimura is concerned about the destination that her ward - Shirou Emiya, is heading in life. Time for her to step in and gently guide the boy.
1. Chapter 1

Fate/Stay Night and its spin offs are properties of Type-Moon, Nitroplus, Image Epoch. All additional references belong to their respective companies.

Chapter 1: Proof of Concept

* * *

><p>It had been more than two years since Kiritsugu Emiya had passed away, leaving behind his adopted son Shirou in the world. Taiga Fujimura worried every day that Shirou was retreating further into himself. The frightening thing to the young woman was he kept a smile on his face the entire time.<p>

Every time she tried to console the boy, he'd merely assure her and then set off to do another lap around the Emiya home. Or ask to be watched over as he practicing cooking in the kitchen. It just wasn't normal.

Taiga was kept awake many nights in worry about the future of the innocent young boy. Such as this night, as she simply stared at the ceiling of her bedroom. 'What can I do, though?' She thought to herself mournfully. 'He just won't let me see what's really inside his heart.'

Unbidden, her vision began to waver a little bit at the edges of her sight. Taiga felt the tip of her nose twitch as her sinuses followed her eyes in acting against the young woman's direction as she silently shook beneath her futon's covers.

A loud rap on her door cut off her misery.

"Mistress Fujimura! Please wake up, Emiya-kun is...!" Kimiko, one of the night shift maids that her grandfather had in the large complex, harshly whispered through the door. Taiga flung her covers away and wiped her nose and eyes as she ran up to and threw open the door.

"What happened to Shirou?" Taiga demanded, uncaring of showing the other woman her reddened eyes, runny nose, or crumpled and wrinkled pajama top and bottom.

"He's been taken to the hospital. We have a car ready, please follow me!"

Both women broke out into a dash – Taiga's heart practically spewing forth from her throat with the level of anxiety and fear that was surging through her body.

* * *

><p>A trio of figures exited from the emergency ward of Fuyuki's hospital.<p>

"You idiot! I was so damned worried!" Taiga barked, slamming the top of her fist into the close cropped red hair on her ward's head. Little Shirou flinched and attempted to weakly defend his cranium, but it was for naught as she dug in and rubbed her knuckles into his head.

"Fuji-nee! Stop!" Shirou whined. His attempts at trying to defend his head were stymied by the crutch he had under one arm to keep him standing.

"You got admitted to the **hospital**."

"It was just a pulled hamstring." He mumbled, a bit embarrassed that he had to go in the first place.

Behind the two, a silent man in a dark suit and tie paced, ready to move in if Taiga needed help supporting the young boy.

"Oh? Then when Tanaka saw you collapse in the middle of the yard a few hours ago, it was nothing?" Taiga demanded, annoyed with the boy's cavalier attitude towards himself. The suited man shifted a bit awkwardly. "Besides, what were you even doing out there so late?" She demanded.

Shirou wished to reply that he would have been alright, but he couldn't let anyone know what he was doing late at nights. His training as a magus had to be kept absolutely secret – just like his father had told him before he had died.

"I...I just had to clean the shed up before I forgot." Shirou weakly attempted to explain.

"You should be grateful that grandfather keeps an eye on you when I can't!"

"Ah..." Shirou's attempts at defense were swiftly terminated at that point.

Both Taiga and Tanaka looked a bit concerned as the boy's face seemingly aged in the span of seconds as he adopted a frighteningly mature expression while turning to face the suited man.

"I sincerely apologize that I've caused you so many inconveniences tonight, Tanaka-san." The boy bowed deeply to the agent.

"It...it's okay, don't worry." Tanaka awkwardly replied as he tried his best to distance himself from the strange boy.

Shirou smiled, overjoyed that he hadn't been a bother.

'That's it...I'm going to do something about this.' Taiga swore, hating how oblivious the boy was about how he had affected them.

* * *

><p>"Fuji-nee, what are we doing?" Shirou, now off his crutches, held onto Taiga's hand as the two of them walked through a small store full of knickknacks. The proprietor noticed them and gave them a polite wave as they headed past him.<p>

"We're getting you a hobby." Taiga stated in a tone that brooked no argument. "I'm not going to have you running around and getting yourself hurt anymore."

Not that Shirou was known to be denied so easily.

"But..."

Taiga gave him a sharp glare. Fear caused her to tighten her grip on Shirou's hand. "I might not be able to be around you often thanks to my new schedule at school, but by god I'm going to make sure you don't do something so stupid again."

Shirou grew alarmed, "Fuji-nee, I can't give up now, though!" He knew that he could only be a hero when he was young – his father had said so!

"Why?"

"B-because..." Shirou hesitated. He knew he'd be lost if he didn't give her a good argument. "Father said so..."

Taiga sighed, but to her ears it sounded more like a death rattle. Her expression softened and her grip on Shirou's hand loosened as she stopped in place. She knelt down in front of the boy and ran her hands through his short hair.

"Fuji-nee...?"

Taiga gave him a sad smile. "You want to make Emiya-san proud, don't you?"

Shirou nodded once. 'I shouldn't...' The boy remembered his promise to his father. He couldn't let her know, but -

Taiga's expression seemed so desolate.

Shirou's decision was made for him when he stared up into Taiga's warm eyes.

"...I want to be an Ally of Justice." Shirou mumbled.

Maybe he could make her happy if he let her know a little?

* * *

><p>Taiga walked away from the Emiya residence in great cheer. She happily waved at her little Shirou, and the boy gave her a wide grin as he energetically waved back. At his feet, several bags with garage models of super heroes were strewn about.<p>

Even if it was a boyish confession, she felt that Shirou had genuinely tried to connect with her today. It was definitely worth the price of a few models.

'Still...a hero, huh?' Taiga wondered as she watched Shirou go back inside his house before she started walking back home to take care of some papers for the teacher she was working under. 'Maybe I can work with that.'

Honestly, who ever heard of someone trying to save the world by punching someone out? These days, it was all about scientific advances saving mankind and the planet.

Taiga happily hummed as she walked away from the Emiya home.

…

'Fuji-nee looks happier than I've seen her in a long time.' Shirou grinned as he looked over the models that Taiga had bought him. 'Now, what should I do with all of these, though?' He bent down and opened one of the boxes at random.

"Iron Man, huh..." Shirou mused as he looked at the figure with the surprisingly detailed looking red and gold armor. He looked up at the clock nearby. Still a few hours to go before he had to go and practice at the dojo...

'Might be fun.' The redhead decided as he picked up his bags and ran to his room to assemble the models.

* * *

><p>As time went on, Taiga grew more and more pleased as her Shirou kept his side hobby. It was a bit of a pain at times, but the slightly (slightly!) older woman was happy she could at least do something nice for the boy.<p>

It grew a bit annoying when the boy would assemble the various models at a ridiculously quick pace, but she privately considered that a good thing. She simply took it as a sign that the boy had an eye for assembling things.

Taiga wondered if there was something more complex she could use, though. She really didn't want to be driven to the poor house by constantly buying models for Shirou, big sister or not.

…

"You really mean I can have this?" Shirou wondered, eyes shining in the sun as he looked at the engine in front of him, lying beneath a stained tarp. Lying in several separate parts at the moment.

"Ayep!" Taiga grinned a bit deviously. "If you can assemble it like your models, and it's running well, I'll sell it for you and give you the money." She promised.

The woman had salvaged it from one of her grandfather's garages when they were going to throw it away. She figured this could keep Shirou busy for a good while.

And keep her sake money in her wallet for a bit.

"Hm...but this and that are different?" Shirou wondered, tapping his lips as he walked around the engine.

"Bah! My Shirou isn't such a quitter." Taiga put on an exaggerated pout. She crossed her arms in front of her and looked away from the redhead. "I should just take this away, then. Isn't like there's anyone here that can help me with this."

Taiga's calculated words made Shirou's sherry eyes shine.

'Gotcha.' Taiga grinned.

…

It was later that night when Shirou came out of his haze of work. The boy was sure he had seen Taiga out before he dragged the engine into his garage and slammed the door shut behind him.

Shirou was welcomed by a set of scraps small enough to fit in a television sized box.

This wasn't going according to plan.

The pre-teen sighed as he leaned his back against the wall of the tool shed. "Great. I broke things even more." He grumbled. Moments later, his stomach joined his whining as he realized he was positively starving.

Shirou stood up and moved towards the door and opened it with a grunt of exertion. His yard, drenched in silver light, spread out before him. The grass swayed serenely before him as a mild breeze cooled the sweaty boy.

'Gah...I missed working out tonight.' Shirou realized with a guilty start once he was halfway to the main house, staring anxiously over at the dojo. 'I need to pace myself better next time,' He promised himself as he went to grab a bite to eat.

Then he could try to piece together the engine again.

Just for a little while longer.

* * *

><p>His dreams that night competed between the most beautiful sword he had ever seen. It was forged out of dreams and honor, sharper and heavier than duty itself, and one of the most noble things he had never been exposed to in his short life.<p>

And a box of scraps.

The next day, Shirou Emiya tackled the engine problem that had been plaguing him before it ruined more of his dreams.

…

"Wait," Taiga spoke into the office phone. In the background, her senior – an older man who was training her to take over his teaching position when he retired – impatiently tapped his foot as he waited on her. "I think something crazy got into my ear." She pressed her fingers into her other ear and strained her right ear.

"Shirou Emiya was absent from school today." The voice of Shirou's middle school truancy officer blandly replied. "You're his contact. Where. is. He?" The man, who sounded like he got off on his position when no one was watching, carefully enunciated each word.

"Uhm..." Taiga glanced over at her senior and then looked at the phone with a weak shrug and half hearted smile.

Her senior frowned.

...

"SHIROU EMIYA, GET OUT HERE SO I CAN PROPERLY PROJECT AT YOU!" Taiga's booming voice sent birds into flight and Shirou scrambling for his life later that afternoon.

* * *

><p>Shirou dragged himself tiredly into the shed.<p>

Today had become a long and stressful day when he had been pulled along by his classmates to help them find several escaped gerbils at a park. Immediately afterward he had been shanghaied by Taiga to go shopping with her, and he hadn't been able to say no to her hopeful face.

The boy glanced at the engine parts strewn about the shed and then he looked at his usual perch where he practiced magecraft.

Shirou shrugged. He tended to concentrate better when he had something to assemble...

…

It was still as painful as ever. Only his word to his father made this exercise seem even remotely palatable to the young boy these days. However, he knew that he could never let his father down, so he metaphorically rammed the iron poker down his spine as he created his magic circuit.

"Trace on."

In his hands, a set of worn down, useless parts from former attempts at assembly were gracefully worked together.

…

The next morning Shirou started awake as he distantly heard Taiga's voice. The redhead's eyes widened as his assembled part tumbled from his hands and towards the unforgiving cement.

"Aa-"

It bounced with an echoing thud. The boy pushed himself away from the wall he had been leaning on and moved towards the part with worry in his heart...

"Huh?"

Yet the piece was whole. No visible sign at all of it having broken appeared.

"Shirou, get up! I'm making breakfast~" Taiga's words slithered into his brain like a curse. The worst possible future had appeared before him!

"W-wait, Fuji-nee!" Shirou quickly set the part aside and desperately ran to save his kitchen.

…

When the part later was disassembled later that day, Shirou saw that it was like the parts had been remade better than before.

* * *

><p>Shirou glanced at the writing board he had set up in the tool shed. On it were random scribbles about his thoughts.<p>

He stepped back from the board after finishing writing on it before turning over to a recent job he had taken up.

Taiga's computer, or at least its hard drive, sat in front of him. She had gotten tipsy one night and it was just fried now.

He didn't want to ask what had happened, but the moisture inside of it spoke volumes.

So much for his image of her as a responsible person.

Still, he had gone ahead and tried to repair it using Reinforcement, like he had that one part a month ago.

The redhead moved up to the board and crossed another of his father's teachings off the board.

Next to Taiga's hard drive there was another one. It was the same brand, and he had deliberately damaged it in the same way after reading through all the books that Taiga had given him on the subject.

However, this one was repaired using his father's ideas of Reinforcement.

'Time to do a side by side test.'

…

Shirou wound up returning Taiga's hard drive to her later that night. He simply told her he was experimenting with different ways of repair when she asked him why he had wanted to test the other one.

It hadn't worked right at all.

"Happy birthday, Shirou!"

Taiga, Raiga Fujimura, and the maid staff cheered when Shirou sheepishly blew out his birthday candles. The boy blushed heavily as the group around him laughed and clapped for him when they saw his sheepish reaction.

Taiga strolled up to the boy before he could try and duck into a corner of the room. "Hold on, birthday boy." Her words stopped Shirou cold.

"What is it, Fuji-nee?" Shirou smiled at her.

Before Taiga could continue, her grandfather had strolled up to the two of them. "We've been talking about your presents," He replied.

"What do you mean?" Shirou wondered. He glanced over at the other side of the room. A few models and various tools he had been eying for the last few months were piled up on a table.

"Well, I wanted to talk about my present, of course."

Both Taiga and Shirou awkwardly looked at the man.

The head of the Fujimura family cackled a bit. "No need to worry, you two. I won't offer Shirou another go against my sumo wrestlers."

Taiga breathed a sigh of relief. At least that was one less concern for her.

"This year."

Taiga stiffened.

Shirou smiled, glad he didn't have to put on a fundoshi. Those things rode up like hell.

"I know you two have been getting spare engines from the shops, right?" When Taiga and Shirou sheepishly nodded, he smiled. "Well, what if I let you have full access to our shops? You can work on the parts whenever you want." His offer made Shirou boggle in surprise.

"Grandfather...!" Taiga gasped.

"Hee hee. Youth should be encouraged." Raiga smiled a bright smile at Taiga. "I'm glad you've been guiding Shirou down this path. The world needs more scientists and engineers in it." He glanced seriously over at Shirou. "I'd be honored if this was a stepping stone in your path, my boy."

"Fujimura-sama..."

"Call me Grandfather, Shirou."

...

Shirou's dreams that night were filled with swords and a completed engine.

* * *

><p>"Do you think you can get this fixed?" The president of his middle school wondered. In front of Shirou and the girl was a nonfunctional speaker. Shirou himself was kneeling behind it as he loosened a few screws to reveal a mass of wires.<p>

The school president ducked down to be at Shirou's level as she looked at him. "Is it a lost cause?" She wondered, moving a bit closer to the redhead as he poked and examined the interior of it with a critical eye.

"I'm going to have to borrow a few books, but I think I can get it fixed." Shirou mused, not seeing how the girl was moving even closer. He quickly tucked the screws away into his tool belt and scooped the innards of the speaker back into it before suddenly standing up. The redhead looked down at the bemused – and oddly frustrated – looking president. "I'll get to work right away!"

With that, he turned and quickly rushed out of the room.

Moments later, a few girls peeked into the audio visual room where the president had dragged Shirou off to when classes ended. They immediately began to giggle and smirk at her.

"Oh shut up." She muttered, blushing furiously.

…

By the time that Shirou got to Fujimura's garage it had been pretty dark. He quickly rang up Taiga as he set his tools and the speaker up on various tables.

"Fuji-nee, it's me." Shirou began, shifting the cordless phone around.

"Shiiiirou, I'm hungry." Taiga immediately greeted with a whine. "Where are you?"

"I'm at the garage..."

"Again? That's the third time this week. Is that school president running you ragged again?" Taiga demanded.

"No! She just needs help with these things." Shirou defended her even as he walked over towards another side of the room. The smell of grease that had never quite been able to be removed from the ground lingered in the air as he plucked one of the various books Taiga bought him – this one on electronics - off a steel bookcase in the corner."They give us so little budget..."

"Yeah, the school district here sucks." Taiga agreed with a huff. "Did you know they held off my raise **again**?"

Shirou decided to remain quiet.

"Shirou." The older woman whined again.

Better a whine than a mauling.

"I'll be back in a few hours." Shirou promised. There was shuffling on the other end of the line, but Taiga finally gave in.

"Okay. I'll wait up for you, then!" Taiga cheerfully replied before hanging up.

"Hm." Shirou walked back and set the phone up on its charger before going to the speaker. "Now then, let's see if we can get you working."

"Trace on."

The world around Shirou dimmed as he touched the speaker with his hands and gazed into it with his prana.

'Judging the concept of creation...'

Everything had a concept or idea that had driven it to be made. The speaker was made for communication.

'Hypothesizing the basic structure...'

Odic energy, magical power from Shirou's own body, gently surged into the speaker from the tips of his fingers. Soon the shape of the item made itself clear to his eyes.

From there, destruction.

The speaker broke apart in his mind's eye into its various parts. The damaged portions were appearing before him blatantly.

However, this was also his magecraft practice.

Now came the harder parts.

'Duplicating the composition material...'

Each individual part of the speaker doubled in his mind's eye. They floated around in a chaotic mix. The earthly minerals that all of it was composed off rattled in the back of his mind.

'Imitating the skill of its making...'

Knowledge gleaned from many books was referenced, but his connection to the object itself let him look deep into it. To experience its creation from the point of view of the object.

He wondered if he was mad some days.

'Sympathizing with the experience of its growth...'

Then again, the path of a magus only held madness and death, right? This...at least in this he had a means of reference. From the device, its link to the engineers that had made it followed. It made him feel very small in the face of what engineers had done before.

'Reproducing the accumulated years...'

The weight of those years. The concepts that had been the foundation of those ideas. All of it flowed through him and projected out towards the chaos in his mind's eye.

'Exceeding every manufacturing process...'

Time to bring form to thought.

Shirou grit his teeth as his spine arched and he nearly broke down sobbing. His skin felt like it was being peeled off his back. His back felt like it was going to melt. Bile rose to his throat, but he willed it back down.

The image of the second speaker assembled.

'Go...'

Shirou willed it out of his mind.

…

By the time that Shirou woke up and got back home, Taiga only got to yell at him for about three minutes before she had to head home for the night.

A set of speakers, one repaired and the other having been projected into reality by Shirou's imagination, sat side by side in Shirou's bedroom.

* * *

><p>Shirou led his new friend, Shinji Matou, into his home after school. The blue haired boy seemed eager to hang around him, but Shirou wasn't sure why. The other boy was much more popular than Shirou, and he was always surrounded by girls.<p>

"Nice place you have, Emiya." Shinji mused, glad to get to hang out with the boy.

"You think so, Matou?" Shirou wondered, not hiding his look of surprise at all.

Shinji grinned. The catty looks of his classmates were shoved to the back of his mind as he crossed his arms behind his head. "Yeah, so what do you do for fun?" He wondered.

"Well, I work on some things in my garage and work out..." Shirou admitted.

Shinji's nose wrinkled in faint distaste. "Ugh, oil again?" He glanced at Shirou's hands, which were stained with the stuff.

"Eheh. Sorry." Shirou sheepishly smiled.

"...it's fine." Shinji graciously dismissed the idea. "How about you show me that stuff?" He allowed. It might be interesting seeing some engines up close. It wasn't like he normally had the chance with his intense studies.

"Okay!" Shirou grinned.

Shinji happily followed after Shirou.

…

"So, you going to be a engineer or something?" Shinji wondered, privately marveling at Shirou's explanations of the computer he was assembling. That had been one of the most easy to follow instructions he had ever heard.

Shirou nodded. "I have a shop that Grandfather gave me. I have a lot of books and stuff that I read during my spare time." He modestly replied.

Shinji let out a low whistle. 'Good to see I'm not hanging out with a flake, then.' He approved.

"So what's your goal?" Shinji prodded, curious about his new friend's career.

"I'm going to invent something to make the world better." Shirou substituted out his Ally of Justice spiel. Best only keep that to himself or he'd get laughed at again.

Apparently this was part of what his father had told him. No one took you seriously after a certain age if you said that.

"I'm going to get into the family business." Shinji replied. "Maybe marry my sister to some nice family." He started looking around at the various parts and tools curiously.

"Oh yeah, what do they do?" Shirou wondered. He moved aside a cart to open up space.

Revealing a faint runic circle that made Shinji's eyes bug out and his tongue slip.

"Magic...!"

A heavy silence descended on the two boys.

"Uhm..." Shirou finally broke it.

A bead of sweat ran down Shinji's back. 'Oh no, oh no, oh no!' His hands rose to his mouth in silent horror.

He'd have to kill his new friend now, right?

...right!

Shirou, seeing the expression for what it was, raised his hands.

"W-wait! Don't do anything stupid!"

"I'm not doing anything stupid!" Shinji retorted, arming himself with a wrench.

"That seems pretty stupid to me!" Shirou backed up.

Shinji came in swinging. "Shows how little you know!"

"I'm a magus too!" Shirou yelped, trying to save his own life as he ducked a shockingly fast attack.

Another heavy silence descended.

…

"Really, I'm sorry for trying to kill you..." Shinji apologized yet again. The two of them had relocated to Shirou's garage shop after the truth had spilled from the bag.

"I know. You said it ten times already." Shirou grumbled. The sincere look of remorse in Shinji's face made the redhead buckle. "Fine, fine. You're forgiven. Again."

Shinji squirmed on the stool that Shirou had brought him. In his excitement and nervousness, he wasn't sure what to ask Shirou about first.

"You okay?" Shirou worried.

"Y-yes!" Shinji yelped. When Shirou stared, he shook his head. "I just thought...well, that we were the only ones." He paused for a moment. "The Matou." He added at the end.

"My father was really the one who was the magus in the family." Shirou's expression fell. "He died before he could teach me much."

"Oh..." Shinji tried to rally something good out of this. "W-why...why don't we compare notes, then?" He wondered, eager to hear something. His grandfather hadn't really taught him anything at all, saying that it wasn't time yet. "I have some books I can sneak out..."

"Uhm...so you want to learn a little from me?"

"And you from me." Shinji quickly added. He wasn't going to be taking handouts from anyone. "How about it?"

* * *

><p>Taiga sighed and listlessly stirred a cup of tea with her finger as she sat in the living room of the Emiya house. The only sounds were the television in front of her and the microwave heating up some food that Shirou had made her before heading out with Shinji.<p>

While it was great that Shirou had made such a good friend, she had been feeling neglected lately.

'Look at me, getting jealous of a boy.' Taiga laughed and shook her head. 'Maybe it's time I find a hobby of my own.' She had heard that the school was going to be starting up an archery club soon...

Thoughts of getting both boys to join the club and her poetic revenge bounced in her head.

'Just one more year before they're at my mercy.'

A knocking at the front door disturbed her increasingly elaborate schemes, and Taiga glanced up. When another knock sounded, she stood up and headed for the front door with a grumble.

"It better not be you, Shirou." Taiga grumbled. Inwardly she preened. "I was just sitting down to watch television and..."

The door swung open.

A delicate looking girl, with a pale complexion and plum hair and eyes, looked up at her. Taiga noticed that the girl was dressed in the uniform of the same school that Shinji and Shirou attended.

"Ha...?" Taiga narrowed her eyes in confusion.

The girl took a step back from Taiga in surprise. "H-hello..." Her voice sounded odd, like something rusty and not used often. "A-are you Shinji?"

Taiga blinked. "No...?" She offered.

The girl, realizing what she said, raised her hands and rapidly shook her head back and forth. "N-no, i-is b-brother..." She closed her eyes for a moment and composed herself. "My brother Shinji Matou."

Taiga decided to take pity on the girl.

"No, he is with Shirou. They won't be back until late." Again.

Taiga cleared her throat when the schoolgirl offered her a bow and turned to leave. "Hey...why don't you wait for them with me?" She offered hopefully. "You can go back with him that way."

The girl paused. "Sakura Matou." She quietly offered.

Taiga grinned. "Taiga Fujimura." The woman moved back into the house so Sakura could enter. "Do you like soap operas...?"

…

Shirou and Shinji were laughing as they approached the Emiya home.

"I swear, some of that stuff is *so* stupid." Shirou laughed.

"Oh god, do you think your dad and my grandpa had to sell their 'magic potions' for money when they were young?" Shinji wondered, scandalized at the thought.

Shirou and Shinji stared at each other for a few moments before cracking up anew.

The redhead unlatched the door and let the blue haired boy in first.

"Still, some of that was good." Shinji mused. The passage about Atlas that Shirou had found was actually intriguing. He felt bad for those poor magi, though. No way of using magic normally since they lacked circuits.

"Fuji-nee, we're home!" Shirou called out as they slipped deeper into the house.

"Hey Shirou! We got a guest." Taiga's voice called out.

Intrigued, Shirou opened the door.

Both Shinji and Sakura gasped as one.

Sakura since she saw the book that she needed to read, and had gone missing from the library, firmly in Shinji's arms. Shinji gasped due to the sight of Sakura with chocolate liberally smeared around her mouth and a giant piece of cake in front of her.

"S-sempai!" Sakura squeaked, dropping her fork as she stared at Shirou in shock.

Shinji glanced at Sakura and then at Shirou in turn in surprise.

Taiga looked as pleased as always while she poured Sakura some milk. "I found myself a kid. Can I keep her?"

…

"Fuji..Fujimura-san was nice." Sakura quietly gave her opinion as both she and her brother walked to their home later that night.

"Mmhmm." Shinji replied awkwardly. He had spotted the looks that Sakura had given the tome in his arms. He was going to have to sneak it in and hope to bribe Sakura into forgetting about it.

Grandpa would flay him alive if he found out that he had snuck out a book. It'd be even worse if he dragged his ignorant sister into things.

Sakura glanced at Shinji. "Are..." She paused for a long moment. "Are you okay?" Her older brother looked pensive at the moment.

"Eh?" Shinji snapped out of imagining gruesome scenarios for himself. He discarded the thought of smacking Sakura's into unconsciousness and trying to play it all off as a dream. That'd just be stupid. "I'm okay."

Sakura offered him a faint smile. It was nice that he had found someone new to hang out with.

'Still...Emiya-san was a magus. Should I tell grandpa?' Sakura wondered, having felt the odic energy flow from the boy into her own circuits through her family's sorcery trait.

Shinji hummed a tune to himself.

'No...it's okay if he doesn't know.' Sakura thought as she happily trailed behind her brother. 'Everyone's happier just not knowing.'

Shirou gazed into the depths of the magic circle before him. Next to him there was a notebook which had sketches of other magic circles that had been used by the Matou family. Apparently these allowed one to summon beings to serve the user.

He compared the notebook's sketches to the magic circle in his mind's eye. The damaged and worn out parts were replaced as he brought out the history of the circle and the skill of its makers.

'Magecraft is a science...'

Shirou didn't notice a faint spark run down from his hand into the circle he was touching.

'With science we will triumph.'

He faintly smiled at all the encouragement that Taiga had given him during the last few years.

'And we will all cry out...'

"FOR SCIENCE!" Shirou projected his voice as he finished joking around.

And then the circle exploded.

Dust and chunks of cement pelted Shirou in the face. He choked and attempted to hack up a lung as he fell back to the exit of the shed.

A hazy figure was within the depths of the dust cloud.

"Master..." The voice was feminine. A pair of eyes, one green and the other blue, lit up from within the gloom of the cloud. "_Master_...!"

The sound of metallic heels striking the ground worried Shirou enough that he threw open the door to make a break for it. Just when he was about to run, a young girl, about five foot, six inches tall with magenta colored hair and clad in a frilly white gown, stepped out of the dust cloud.

**She had a golden horn jutting out from her forehead.**

The girl's hair draped back over her eyes as a pleased smile crossed her face as she brought her hands, clad in silk gloves, up to her chest as she let out a heartfelt sigh. A shroud of electricity slammed into her from the generator that had been in the back of the room, drenching the room in darkness.

'This...isn't very good, is it?' Shirou thought as his vision was consumed by darkness and two glowing eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

Fate/Stay Night and its spin offs are properties of Type-Moon, Nitroplus, and Image Epoch. All additional references belong to their respective companies.

Chapter 2: Prototype

* * *

><p>"Master..." The quiet, breathy voice of the intruder responded to his question. Her glowing eyes, shining with a rather ominous looking light, moved closer to Shirou. The redhead let out a cry of shock as he rushed for the exit.<p>

A rapid tapping of heavy metal against the concrete alerted Shirou that he had precious little time before he was caught. He threw open the door to the shed and dove out into the moonlight – nervously backing away from the door of his shed as the figure within revealed herself once again.

She was tall. Taller than he was, now that he got a chance to see her under the moonlight. Her profile was stunning. For a moment Shirou could believe that she was a figure of his overworked imagination. However, when the girl approached him, hands clasped together in front of her, the metallic echo of her feet landing on the ground snapped him out of the daze he had sunk into.

Shirou turned and bolted, ignoring her supplicating cry as he tried to put as much distance between himself and the strange girl as he possibly could. The back yard flew by in a blur as Shirou furiously ran to get a weapon from the dojo.

The sound of fabric swished past him as the girl shot past him, blocking his path forwards as she spread her arms to her sides. Her drooping bangs parted with the swift motion, revealing her heterochromic eyes to Shirou again.

The look of absolute sadness and resolute determination in them caused Shirou's flight reflex to take a massive hit.

"Who...who are you?" Shirou fidgety wondered.

A look of pleasure crossed the girl's face. She almost looked like she wanted to step towards him again, but only held back due to the memory of his last reaction.

"What would you like me to be, Master?" The question, asked with sincerity, caused Shirou to stare at the newcomer. Seeing the lack of response, the girl moved closer towards the boy, and tentatively took his hands in hers.

Shirou immediately noted how cold they felt.

"You have called this nameless one from across time." The girl leaned towards him, careful with the gleaming horn jutting from her forehead. "I have heeded your call, so please...command me." She squeezed his hands with her own, treating him like a piece of fine china. "Give me worth once again."

Shirou and the girl's cheeks were practically brushing against each other with the tall girl ducking to be even with the boy. The redhead was furiously blushing at this point as she continued to gaze into his eyes.

"U-h..." Shirou squeaked. "W-why don't we head inside?"

The girl blinked at him. Feeling her grip on his hands grow lax, Shirou quickly wrenched his hands away from the taller girl's grasp and quickly began to move towards the living room. He nearly fell to the ground when he felt her shirt get pinched, the fabric nearly ripping off as the girl grabbed onto Shirou's shirt.

Shirou glanced back at the girl, surprised with the casual display of strength, but she just looked confused at his reaction. Taking that to mean that she was waiting on him, he began to lead her into the house proper.

Shirou continued gazing in the direction of the wooden deck just outside the living room. He could still picture the scuff marks that the strange girl had made on the floor in the back of his mind. Just lingering there to torment him between sips of tea. Occasionally he'd glance across the table at the newcomer, but she stiffly remained at attention, with her metallic legs beneath her.

And little pieces of wood pulp lightly dusting the edges of her white skirt from where her feet brushed up against the fabric.

Shirou used all the will power he had to not whimper. It was a close thing, though. To distract himself, he focused his attention on the rather unique girl. She was currently idly poking at the tip of the ceramic mug he had gotten her and leaning a little bit away from the cup and table.

"Is something wrong?"

The girl glanced up at him, hair once again covering her eyes as a look of concern was on her face.

"Master, what should I do with this?"

"...eh?" Shirou rubbed the back of his head. "You...drink it?"

The girl grimaced a little. "Are...are you sure I should?" She sounded hesitant.

Shirou, hearing alarm bells in the back of his mind, glanced over in the direction of his tool shed. Suddenly remembering the bolt of electricity, he nervously gulped as he looked at the cup of tea set before the girl.

"Should..." He glanced at her legs again. "Should I get some motor oil...?"

The girl tilted her head, bangs flowing back up her face to reveal her mismatched eyes. "What do you mean by that, Master?"

Shirou suddenly grimaced. "Wait, first things first...you really should stop calling me that." He uneasily replied, aware of just how much trouble could be caused by the girl's insistence on that dangerous, dangerous word.

He could just imagine it now...

_Shirou and the horned girl stood in the light of day before the redhead's friends and family._

_'What's this? You're trying to out-macho me now, Shiroou?' Shinji dangerously drawled, glaring at his friend as the horned girl continued to cling to him. 'Just how much of a heel can you be? Flashing this sort of eroge style plot twist in my face?'_

_Taiga simply wept, clutching onto the tatami mats of the living room. "Where have I gone wrong? I should have been Shirou's bride!'_

_The Shirou of his dream and the real life one twitched their eyebrows at the same time._

_Shinji's quiet sister continued to simply sit at the table, with a few plates of food polished off and set off to the side as she merrily continued to devour a rather shockingly large amount of food. He wasn't sure why her gut hadn't quite popped yet._

_She paused her ravenous feeding when Shirou's gaze turned on her. With all the dignity and grace of a presiding judge, she took her chopsticks and simply pointed them at his neck. A tweak of her fingers brought them slamming shut around his neck._

_"Deviant." She declared._

Shirou came out of his daydream, worriedly clutching at his neck, forehead glistening with sweat.

"Master...?"

The redhead furiously shook his head. "No! No no! None of that." His voice sounded a bit panicked. "My name is Shirou, Shirou Emiya. Not Master!"

"Un." The newcomer grunted, nodding her head sharply, hair bouncing with the motion. "First order recognized Shirou, Shirou Emiya." She proudly declared with a bright smile on her face.

Shirou merely brought up his hand to cradle his forehead.

"I'm going to need more caffeine, aren't I?" He mused.

* * *

><p>A watchful man lowered the binoculars he was holding up to his face.<p>

The little brother of the Fujimura family reached to the phone clipped onto his belt buckle and began to call up his superiors for a status update.

Down below, he could see Shirou Emiya helping the girl that had come out of his storage shed, the light of the living room showing off the metallic legs and horn on her forehead.

'I really hope Miss Taiga doesn't blow her top.' He thought as the phone in his hand began to ring. While it was a man's prerogative to make cute looking robot girls, Taiga had demanded to be alerted if anything strange happened at the home from now on. As he heard the click of the phone being answered, the little brother turned away from the compound, feeling the ever present pressure on the back of his head to forcibly ignore things vanish.

Oh yes. Things were strange down there indeed.

"Why can't I stay, Shirou?" The girl wondered, holding up her leg up for the boy. Shirou merely grunted as he wrapped another line of duct tape around her metallic leg, securing several coasters to the bottom of her heels.

"Fuji-nee would blow up."

She blinked and set down her leg, two inches of fabric and rubber between her feet and the mats of the living room. Shirou nodded a bit wearily, approving the temporary fix for now. As the boy rose to his feet, she continued the conversation.

"Have you tried to use an anti-catalyst?"

Shirou blinked at her.

"Yes?"

The redhead faintly grinned, shaking his head. "Never mind." He paused for a moment. He thumbed his neckline, which had been widened when he had nearly been choked when the new girl grabbed the back of his shirt.

Shirou took the taller girl's hand in his and began to walk towards the exit to his house. The sound of his coaster's being squished released a series of squeaks as they moved, but a backward glance showed that it was keeping his wooden floor from being too banged up.

"First of all, we need to figure out a name for you." Shirou declared as he locked the door behind them. The fresh night air filled the boy's lungs as he took the girl's hand in his and began to walk away from her house.

"But Shirou...I still want to know why I can't stay." She spoke up again, squeezing the boy's hand slightly for emphasize.

"Can you tell me anything about yourself that can help?" Shirou nervously stumbled over his words, trying to move the conversation on from dangerous, dangerous thought paths. "I don't want to give you a terrible name."

She smiled at the thought of being named by her Master, but she persisted. "I wouldn't take up any space." She stubbornly continued as they began to walk through the dark neighborhood. "I fit in most small nooks."

The street lights above their heads dimmed as they passed.

Shirou briefly imagined Taiga coming across the horned girl, curled up on top of some futons in one of various closets in his home. His full body shudder made the taller girl worriedly glance down at him. Feeling that gaze on him, Shirou quickly blurted out the next major thing he could think about.

"But the wooden floors, you see...better if we put you at the garage. Much safer."

Shirou felt her release her grip on his hand. Concerned that he had offended her, he turned and nearly fell over in shock as she offered him a full smile, balanced on one leg while she held the other leg in another arm.

"They're detachable!" She proudly announced.

Shirou felt a bit faint.

* * *

><p>Taiga felt sleepy as she hopped out of her driver's car and up to Shirou's house. Her exhaustion was shoved away as she saw Yuka Imai, the little brother she had assigned to keep watch. "Yuka! How long ago did they head out?" She demanded as she walked up to the shorter man.<p>

"About three minutes ago, boss." He scratched the back of his messy brown hair.

"And you're sure that he was there with a girl?" Taiga insisted, wanting clarification.

Yuka nodded. "Mister Emiya went into the shed. There was a flash of light and then everything in there went quiet. He started hollering up a storm before he ran out, followed by the weirdest girl I've ever seen."

Taiga rubbed at the bridge of her nose. "Let's go after him. I don't want the idiot getting himself hurt again." Worry energized her as she gestured for Yuka to follow her to the car she had stolen from the fleet they owned, still puttering away as the driver kept the engine warm for them.

* * *

><p>Her Master glanced away from her. "Can you go ahead and put that back on?" He asked, sounded strained.<p>

After she had reattached her leg, her expression fell as she took his hand again. Both of them continued walking through the streets in silence. While she wasn't sure what her Master was thinking, she tried to distract herself, drawing energy from the poles set up along their path.

At one point, she accidentally drew too much, causing the glass on top of the pole to shatter as it went dark, burning out the wires within the structure. Her Master twitched as a rain of glass came down in front of them, and yelped in fear as a twisting bolt of electricity soared from the burnt out pole towards her.

She keenly felt the loss of his hand holding hers as he wrenched his grip and dove out of the way as the bolt struck the golden horn on her head, feeding her the energy she needed. Shirou boggled at her, and took a step back.

She winced.

"Master..." She began, taking a step towards the boy. "Shirou," She corrected. "I apologize..."

Shirou's expression softened. However, before he could even say anything, she heard a loud honking noise behind her. Light flooded the street as she turned and gazed at the carriage approaching them. Veins of life giving electricity ran throughout the vehicle, along with...

'Oh, an automobile.' She thought, amazed at the efficiency compared to her time. 'What's one doing...?'

Her thoughts were quickly abandoned as the car released a squeal as it slid into a side stop. She leapt backwards to prevent herself from being rammed into at the last moment, those pads that her Master had installed on her feet being ripped off by friction as she slid.

"Master!"

Two men and women scrambled out of the car, but one of the men quickly leveled some sort of device at her. It released a series of obnoxious popping sounds as it launched several projectiles at her. Paying no mind to them, she began to rush towards her Master, who was being pulled away by the other two humans. She snarled as one of the projectile tagged her in the shoulder, merely causing her balance to be thrown off as she jerked back a few steps.

The projectile, compressed into a thin circle due to slamming into her shoulder, bounced to the ground harmlessly.

"What is that thing?" The man that had been firing on her demanded.

"What are you doing?" Her Master yelped as he was dragged behind the automobile by the taller woman.

"Saving you from this **monster** woman!"

No!

_It was a dark night when she caught up to her father. The small hamlet she had tracked him to wasn't like his usual choice in stops. Yet her heart began to beat faster as she entered, figure hidden by the frayed mantle she had taken from the knight that had foolishly tried to get between her and her father._

_Ah, she was almost home..._

No! No!

_The people here were kind to her, despite being a stranger. She hadn't needed to forcibly persuade any of them at all. Armed with the instructions to her father's new home, she began to practically skip to his abode._

_She was sure that this land would be perfect for her and her father._

_She smiled as she saw a flash of light from within the home. Feeling playful, she decided to walk up to the window and peer in through it. Maybe she could play a prank on her father by rapping on the window and seeing his reaction?_

She wasn't a monster!

She ripped herself out of her past, shoring up her mental defenses as she moved towards the four humans.

"B-but..." She spoke up with a trembling voice, reaching towards her Master. "He chose me..." The truth was rewarded by her Master trying to squirm out of the arms of the woman he was with. She could practically feel herself begin to cry at the confirmation of her belief.

"Fuji-nee! You got it all wrong!" Her Master desperately pled on her behalf. "She isn't a monster!"

Her heart soared with his belief as she began to strut forwards, sure of her place by their side, but then it went terribly wrong as the woman and man began to try to shove her Master into the automobile as the other one started shooting at her again.

"You idiot! This isn't time for that! She nearly flash fried you with lightning!" The woman insisted. She shoved the boy into the back of the car. "Get inside so we can get out of here and call the army or something!"

They were taking him away from her...?

"No! I won't lose him again!" She shrieked, drawing a panicked glance from her Master. Interpreting it as him refusing to leave her, she summoned her mace to her hands. The massive steel sphere at the tip of her weapon synchronized with her internal systems, causing her panicked heartbeat to synchronize with the larger heart stored within the weapon.

Her energy reserves dripped fatally low, but she knew exactly how to correct it.

"**BRIDAL CHEST!**" She roared, lighting up the night as the engines within her mace's heart began to rip electricity out of the network of veins she could see all around her. Abundant amounts of mana from the air and earth swirled up her figure, restoring a tenth of her combat potential back to her.

With a snarl, she threw herself into the air, cracking the ground beneath her as she dove towards her Master. The two men focused all their attention shooting at her, but with a portion of her abilities back, she merely knocked the two aside in her haste to get to her Master.

At the last moment, the vehicle pealed away, causing her swing to miss and smash a hole in the street.

"Master!" She howled angrily, enraged her attempt at stopping the vehicle had failed. As it began to tear away from her, she attempted to rip the electricity out of the car, but with it moving it was impossible for her to lock on.

"Bring him back! Bring him back to me!" Wreathed in electricity, she broke out into a dash after the woman that was trying to spirit her second chance away from her.

* * *

><p>"Fuji-nee!" Shirou shouted in shock, "Stop this car now!"<p>

A quick glance backwards was showing the girl he had met tonight baying for Taiga to stop. As the girl rushed through the neighborhood behind them, he could see street lights shattering and every light going out in a wave.

"Buckle up, Shirou." Taiga curtly demanded from the driver's seat, glancing back at the mace wielding girl that was quickly catching up to them. "It's going to be a bumpy ride."

The tone that his guardian spoke with briefly stunned Shirou, but he desperately moved to fill out her wishes as she spun the wheel of the car, causing the back to wildly whip at a fourty five degree angle as Taiga took a corner at thirty miles per hour.

Shirou clipped the belt in place just as he saw the horned girl he had called earlier leap after them.

'Wait...leap?'

With a sinking sensation to compliment the feeling of his guts rising up to his throat, Shirou turned ahead and saw that the tip of the car was descending towards the slanted street of the hill they had just driven off of at excessive speeds.

"Holy..."

Shirou's words were lost as he and Taiga were bounced as the car came slamming down on the street, spitting out sparks as it speed increased due to descending the hill. Feeling like he was losing years off his life by the moment, Shirou began to feel like he was going to die as he saw the girl land a block in front of them.

Nor was he really ready to see the lines of electricity being gathered into her mace.

"Tch..." Taiga clucked her tongue. "Some girls just don't know when to give up." Knowing that the streets were too narrow to try anything here, Taiga slammed the break and tried to shift into reverse. The back of the car almost felt like it was trying to go airborne for a moment as the engine, beginning to purr weakly the closer they got, squealed its protest.

The tires burned as Shirou and Taiga were choked by their harnesses as their bodies tried to insist they keep going forward. The car began to reverse direction, though. It seemed that the horned girl up ahead also noticed that as she began to charge at them like a train.

As she desperately tried to get Shirou away from the monster, Taiga's mind ran a mile a minute as she began to tear through the streets of Fuyuki in reverse while Shirou's babbling was ignored. They slammed into the hill in reverse and began to ascend as their little lightning bug charged after her, glaring death at Taiga all the while.

'Electricity, electricity...'

Taiga suddenly blinked as she twisted the wheel, barely avoiding slamming into a car in a moment of distraction.

'The bridge! Maybe I can knock her into the river!' Deciding on her course, Taiga began to drive the closest route she could remember to the river.

* * *

><p>Ha-hah.<p>

It was getting darker. Her body, unable to run efficiently due to the contract being incomplete, was burning more energy that she was capable of taking in through her combat mode. It was only due to her Bridal Chest that she could even keep up the pursuit, feeling the World itself reject her the longer she tried to access even a portion of her true abilities.

She was bringing shame to her father...

She was bringing shame to her Master...

W-would her Master reject her too now that he was seeing her at her lowest?

_Glancing around, she saw that none of the locals were walking down the cobblestone the hood of her cloak away from her face, she pressed her forehead, Galvanism receptor removed earlier that night before she entered town, up against the window to peer inside the home._

_Her father was merrily laughing, sitting around a fireplace with a man and a woman. She smiled at the joy in her father's eyes, glad that their forcible separation at the hands of those vile, hateful knights hadn't taken a toil on him._

_But then something strange happened..._

_A small human raced up to her father, lifting up their arms for her father to pick them up. When he did so, the woman rose up from her seat and moved closer to him, leaning up against him._

_Something about that scene disturbed her. Deciding that she had been watching long enough, she stepped back from the window, taking out her the receptor and connecting it to the port on her forehead as she lightly knocked on the window._

_Her father glanced over towards her and met her gaze._

_She smiled._

_He began screaming._

She raced after her Master over a metallic bridge with a desperate, continuous keening shriek. One that carried the spirit of her father's terror into the present.

* * *

><p>Terror tried to grip Taiga's heart, almost succeeding in paralyzing her as she could distantly hear the screams of the monster she had saved Shirou from, but her greater fear at losing Shirou barely stayed it.<p>

"Fuji-nee!" Shirou shouted, feeling the effects too, but realizing that only distance was keeping them from being affected. "If you trust me at all, you have to stop this car now! She's just panicking because she thinks you're taking me from her!"

"No!" Taiga denied, shaking her head furiously as they tore across the bridge. "She'll kill you! She almost killed you before I got there!"

Shirou opened his mouth to shout back, but that's when he glanced at Taiga's eyes through the rear view mirror. A palpable look of fear lurked in the depths of the older woman's eyes. Once he saw that look in her eyes, he leaned over and saw how tightly she was gripping onto the wheel.

'You idiot...' Shirou resisted the urge to close his eyes as he cursed himself. 'You're the one who caused all of this.'

Up ahead he saw a car and realized that time was up. As far as he knew, the screams of the girl behind them would hit them with paralysis...and then they would be hurt when they crashed. Or they might even die if they drove off the bridge.

Shirou gripped the seat belt and quickly unlatched it.

"Shirou?" Taiga's eyes widened. Her arm reached back for him, but he quickly moved out of the way as he reached for the door handle. "Wait, don't do it!" She shouted as she slammed the brake on the car even as he threw open the door and dove out of the car.

Shirou desperately clutched his eyes as he threw everything he had behind reinforcing his clothing and body as he came slamming down on the ground at ridiculous speeds. The redhead went with the flow of motion and allowed himself to roll, hoping he wouldn't come to a stop in the lane that oncoming traffic was within.

A sound of a horn made that prospect sort of grim, though.

'I'm dead.' Shirou thought with serenity as his battered and cut up body came to a stop on the same lane. Feeling weakness suffuse him, the redhead was simply too tired to move out of the way of the car as it tried to brake its motion.

…

T_here was so much blood..._

_Her father had attacked the others when he had seen her. Thinking that they had done something to hurt him, she immediately broke into the home and immediately moved to help her father as he hacked into the family while peals of laughter bubbled out of his throat._

_Even when their work was done, he continued to laugh to himself as he looked at her blood stained dress. She wasn't sure what she had done, but she was pleased that her father was happy. She warmly watched over him, taking in his looks after all these years._

_He had gotten thinner and more gray on top, but he was still wonderful in her she told him so, he merely began to laugh even harder._

She pushed everything she had left into one last desperate surge of motion. The last bits of electricity she had gathered before crossing the bridge was consumed as she threw herself towards her Master, shoving him out of the way.

Impact.

…

A loud, continuous stream of a car's horn blared, cutting through the silence that had descended on the night.

Shirou pulled himself up to his knees, staring in horror at the crumpled front half of a car. Its shattered lights illuminated the crumbled up figure of the girl he had called hours ago. Her mace had soared over the edge of the river and the girl herself was curled up into a ball five feet away from the car.

"...Shirou!" The redhead realized that Taiga was yelling for him. The woman was running up to him and the remains of the car.

Shirou shook off the remaining fog that had descended on him, bolting up to his feet. "Check on the driver, Fuji-nee!" He commanded as he rushed towards the girl's side. Once he got to her side, he immediately threw himself on his hands and knees to inspect her.

From what he could tell, the girl's horn had been snapped in half, but he couldn't see any other visible damage on her. As his hands touched her cool shoulders, her eyes fluttered open and she offered him a weak, but heartfelt smile.

"Master..." She reached up a shaky hand and touched his cheek. "You're safe..."

A small, bright flash of light caused him to glance towards where other portion of her horn was located. The golden metal was breaking up into a scattering of golden flakes of light.

"What's...what's happening?" Shirou demanded when he saw her body began to grow transparent.

"Ah...I used up too much energy without becoming probably yours, Master." The girl looked resigned. She suddenly smiled. "But you're safe. That's all that matters..."

"Wait - no!" Shirou blurted in alarm. "Tell me what I can do to help you!" He demanded, clutching at her shoulders. His fear spiked as he felt his fingers sink slightly into her body – flashes of towering flames filling his thoughts with dread.

Not again.

"Just...accept me, Master." She sounded more strained by the moment. "It...should have enough energy to keep me around."

"Alright! I accept you!" Shirou desperately agreed. He winced as he felt the back of his hand flare with light as a singular clockwork gear, divided into three sections, was superimposed on the skin in a flare of heat and fire.

But he could see that she was still fading. Shirou realized shortly after that the sensation of energy being pulled towards another wasn't happening.

'Of course, my circuit isn't formed!' The redhead thought in shock.

"...ah, I'm glad you chose me." Her eyes began to water. "Thank you for that..." She began to sleepily murmur.

Shirou felt despair begin to close in on him as he saw the tear rush down her face.

_"Hey Emiya, check this out," Shinji barked out a laugh as he held one of the tomes from his library for Shirou to see. "Even a low rank mage's bodily fluids contain enough odic energy that poorer members of the Mage's Association sell them as mana potions." _

_He grinned. _

_"Hey, maybe you should think about whacking off and storing it in bottles– pay your way through college, eh?"_

Shirou's eyes widened. 'Bodily fluids...' He wet his lips as he looked down at the girl and threw himself down on her and slammed his lips against hers. The girl's two toned eyes popped open in shock as he thrust his tongue into her mouth.

The blunted horn on her forehead flared with light.

Shirou's body locked up, feeling like he was being burned alive as he felt the sensation of channeling his odic through his body surge across his entire body instead of just his spine. It felt like he was being stabbed from every conceivable direction as his blood burned inside his veins.

The girl beneath him deliriously moaned as she sapped as much energy as she could through their kiss. Her arms rose up to crush the redhead to her chest as she squirmed below him as their kiss kept up, her body solidifying beneath him as she barely past the point needed to keep living.

"Aaah! Get off her, Shirou!" Taiga wailed as she kicked Shirou off the girl. "What are you..." She turned towards Shirou with a heated glare as he harshly panted for breath. "What is..." She spun to stare at the girl, who was holding a hand to her rapidly beating heart. "Inconceivable!" Taiga roared at the skies above.

Both Shirou and the girl simply continued to desperately gulp for air.

* * *

><p>It was an awkward wait afterward.<p>

Taiga continued giving Shirou and the girl with him sharp stares, but she kept her own council. She only left them alone when the ambulance arrived for the driver of the car.

Shirou and the girl awkwardly sat on the railing separating the pedestrian's walkway from the street. Above them was a weakly twitching light post.

"Are you ...okay?" Shirou uneasily asked the girl. "You keep moving your hand towards your chest."

"Un." She nodded, keeping her hand over her heart. "It's...just beating harder than usual." She softly admitted.

Shirou blushed.

"W-well, what are we going to do now?" He uneasily replied. The steady drone of electricity being drawn towards the girl filled the brief silence.

"My father was Victor Frankenstein." She suddenly spoke. "He didn't allow me to use his name."

Shirou blinked. "Huh?" He blankly grunted.

"...earlier." She blushed. "You asked me to tell you about myself." She awkwardly ran a hand through her hair. "So you could come up with a new name for me."

"Oooh." Shirou blinked. "So you're Miss Frankenste-"

"No."

The boy boggled at how quickly she cut him off.

"My father told me that I don't deserve to share the same name as him." She uneasily smiled at Shirou. "So...I am a nameless creature." The smile turned surprisingly brittle. "Or Frankenstein's Monster, I suppose."

She yelped as Shirou suddenly took her hands with his.

"Don't you dare call yourself that..." Shirou hissed, eyes narrowed as he looked up at her. "You're not a monster at all. No monster would ever cry!" He insisted.

"S-shirou?" Her voice trembled as he gave her a smile.

"Let's work on getting you a name. Together."

"O-okay." She squeaked, stammering a little bit. "Yes, of course Master!" She repeated, voice firm this time.

"Well, isn't this cozy, eh?" Taiga's voice cut into the conversation. "Nice mood." She drawled, narrowing her eyes at Shirou and the white clad girl. In the distance, Shirou could see the police being spoken to by several Fujimura members.

"So..." He began.

"March." Taiga interrupted, pointing in the direction of Shirou's home.

"...a marching we will go." Shirou completely agreed with her in a servile tone as he spun and started walking in the direction that Taiga had pointed.

Taiga glared at the white clad girl. "You remind me of a Sadako." She mused.

The newly named girl tentatively smiled.

"That isn't a good thing."

The nameless girl decided that it was a terrible name.

"Let's move it." Taiga barked at the girl as the older woman headed off after Shirou. The younger of the two gazed at Shirou and Taiga's retreating backs for a few moments.

'Monsters can't cry.'

She began to follow after them.

'Thank you for believing in me, Master.'

* * *

><p>"Emiya!" Shinji called out as he used the house key to enter the home. When he didn't hear any responses, he began to grumble to himself. "I can't even depend on my friend to hang out with me even after bringing glory to our school's track team."<p>

With a lazy sigh, he decided to reward himself for his three day trip by raiding something from Shirou's fridge.

'Hm...maybe he's in that damn shed again?' He thought, sipping at a box of juice with a bendy straw. Deciding to check it out, and promptly begin laughing if he found his friend passed out, he headed off in that direction.

"Huh, I wonder what happened here?" Shinji wondered, seeing all the scuff marks on the wooden platform as he passed it and headed to the shed. He shrugged it off when he saw that the door was slightly open.

"Emiya, don't you know anything about hospitality?" He demanded as he shoved open the door and entered. "I was calling for you and you didn't ev-"

"I'm sorry." A girl's voice spoke up from the roof. "I was too tied up to answer on behalf of Master."

Shinji looked up.

A girl's head, with long magenta toned hair, a blunted gold horn, and heterochromic eyes gazed down at him from where it was suspended by a series of chains.

Along with the rest of her body.

She gave him a charming smile.

"You must be Master's fri-oh he fainted." She softly intoned as Shinji's eyes rolled up to the back of his head as he collapsed before her. "Oh dear."

* * *

><p>OBSERVATION NOTES<p>

[Taiga's observation]

(Shirou's observation)

Other

* * *

><p>Master: Shirou Emiya<p>

[Oh Shirou, you're such a pervert.]  
>(Shut up, Fuji-Nee)<p>

True Name: N/A

Frankenstein's Monster

[We're working on a name for her!]

(But she'll never be a monster in my eyes.)

Sex – Female

[You would know that, right Shirou?]

Height/Weight – 170 cm/40 kg

Alignment: [Crazy Possessive]

(That's not true, Fuji-Nee! Chaotic Neutral.)

Strength: C

(She made pretty deep holes in the earth.)

[I wouldn't want to face that in the dojo.]

Mana: D

(Uhm...she started fading quickly when she lost her mace.)

[Making out with you fixed that up rather quickly, didn't it?]

Endurance: B

[She took a car to the face and came back for some rabu rabu with Shirou.]

N. Phantasm: C

(She was using it to sustain her own life.)

Agility: D

[Those legs make turns a hassle for her. She should have installed some rollerskates instead.]

Luck: B

I was specifically chosen over one with fate on her side. I'll protect him for her until the chosen day...

Personal Skills:

Scream of Terror

[It was pretty terrifying. I don't think normal people have a chance to concentrate when she starts wailing like that...]

Galvanism

(Galvanism seems to allow electricity to be converted into prana. I need to study this more, because that flies in the face of what some of these books Shinji lent me say...)

Noble Phantasm:

Bridal Chest - A Maiden's Chastity

(It was lost. It's apparently how she was able to accumulate energy to keep going after me when she thought Taiga was taking me away from her. It allowed her to attack with converted power. Would have made a great energy source, but I'll find a way around that...I have to.)

[I refuse to touch the joke. It's too easy.]


	3. Chapter 3

Fate/Stay Night and its spin offs are properties of Type-Moon, Nitroplus, and Image Epoch. All additional references belong to their respective companies.

Chapter 3: Sustainability

* * *

><p>Shinji crept through the darkness. The door to Sakura's room was slightly ajar, and the boy peeked his head into the room. Noticing that the dark haired girl was shivering, he quickly moved in and tucked her in. When his hand brushed her bangs, she instantly stilled, her sleep growing calm once again.<p>

His father had let him know that Uncle Kariya had come back home after abandoning them.

The boy, young at the time, only vaguely recalled a gentle faced man, wondered why he had left.

With a child's curiosity, he found himself wandering towards the only room in the house that he hadn't searched yet. The door to the basement had a foul smell, like the eggs he had left out in the sun beneath Sakura's window one time. His nose wrinkled as he let out a soft gagging sound and leaned towards the door knob.

Shinji froze as he heard something. He leaned up closer to the door, pressing his ear against the crack between the door and its frame.

His blood went cold as he heard the screams coming from downstairs. With a start, Shinji bolted away from the door like it had burned him, feet getting caught in a snag he had made on the throw before the door.

Shinji let out a cry of shock as he slammed onto the ground, instantly blacking out. When he next woke up, he found himself back within his bed. A bowl of water was on top of the dresser next to his bed and sleeping on his lap, head resting against his lap, was a stranger.

Was this Uncle Kariya?

The boy blinked down at his uncle, trying to shift his legs when he noticed that they had grown numb beneath the man's head. His attempt at freeing himself caused the man to let out a yawn and shift off Shinji's legs.

Shinji was astonished as he saw his Uncle's face for the first time in years.

'When did he get so old...?" Deep, haggard lines ran along his face, almost looking like scar tissue. Furthermore, white roots were beginning to show along his dark head of hair. Shinji, concerned about this change in the man, reached forwards and ran his fingers through Kariya's hair.

His uncle let out a pained moan.

"Shinji, don't bother him." The boy looked up in alarm as his father entered the room, fresh laundry inside a basket in his arms. "If you have time to prod your uncle, you have time to help me put away these clothes."

Shinji noticed how Kariya hadn't moved at all during their talk. "Is uncle alright?" He wondered. His father merely smirked a little.

"He isn't dead yet."

* * *

><p>Shinji felt an annoying buzzing in the back of his head as the blessed darkness of unconsciousness began to fade. Lethargy heavily weighed him down as he opened his eyes to glance up at the ceiling of one of Emiya's guest rooms.<p>

"...She's your responsibility now!" Fujimura's voice could be heard through the closed door. While the partial statement he caught was a little bit intriguing, he really wished she would shut up. Her volume was aggravating his headache.

Shinji tossed off the light blanket that had been thrown on him and rolled to his feet, wincing when he prodded a lump on his head. The sharp sting shook off the remainder of his laziness as he made his way out of the room and down the hall towards the living room, listening as he walked.

"It's not fair to keep her under lock and key, Fuji-nee!" Emiya protested. "She deserves at least some fresh air."

"I agree with that, but this is..."

The reason Fujimura suddenly cut herself off was because Shinji had finally entered the living room. Oddly, the screen doors that were always opened to the veranda outside were shut. The older woman, directly facing him, clamped her mouth shut.

Emiya, with his back towards Shinji, quirked his head.

"Miss Fujimura, please don't be angry. I won't bother anyone now, I swear!"

Shinji boggled as he glanced at Emiya's back with a queer look as a teenager's voice came from his direction. The teenager quickly looked around, knowing that ventriloquism was not one of Shirou's varied talents.

It better damn well not be, at any rate. It was getting harder to just keep up with that idiot.

"What is it, Fuji-nee?" Emiya's voice was back to normal, but Shinji hadn't located the source of the girl's voice. When he saw Fujimura slowly start to shake her head, mouth gaping open and closed like a fish, Shinji knew that something was up.

Last time that had happened was when Emiya had outed himself as a magus.

"Emiya," Shinji strutted forwards and slapped a hand on Emiya's shoulder, tugging the other boy to face him. The red head began to twist to glance at him when Shinji's eyes glanced downwards at Emiya. "What the hell is going on heeeeeyaaah!"

Emiya had a severed head in his bloody lap.

It was a very pretty head to be sure, with long hair, flawlessly unblemished skin, and a rather cute hairstyle.

_How nice, there's actually a girl that can pull it off. It takoH MY GOD, I'M FRIENDS WITH A SERIAL KILLER!_

Shinji fell onto his rear and quickly began to scramble away.

"Wait! Wait! This isn't what it looks like!" Emiya yelled, trying to project his voice over the constant, high pitched wail that spilled forth from Shinji's lips as Emiya lifted the head away from his lap to show the bottom of his shirt and his pants were stained with dark fluids.

"The hell is that, then?" Shinji gestured wildly at the dark fluids on Shirou's clothing. "Axe murderer! Socialist! ...monogamist!"

"Is that even a word?" Shirou demanded, rising to his knees. Shinji began to retreat.

Both teenagers quickly began to chase each other around the room as one endlessly pursued while the other one endlessly retreated.

"Reminds me of a novel I read once. Was it about Arthur...?" Fujimura mused as she took a sip of her tea, uncaring about the fact that her ward had seemingly gone off the deep end. Shinji wondered if the tiger woman had consumed the rest of the body at some point.

"Get away from me!" Shinji wailed rather girlishly. "Sakura still needs her brother for another few years! I haven't frightened off any punk ass bitches from her yet!"

At one point the severed head spilled forth from Emiya's arms slipped and bounced into Shinji's circular retreating path around the room. The girl's hair swept away from her face, revealing an adorably confused expression, only magnified by her differently colored eyes.

And golden...horn.

Shinji froze.

"Hi again!" The confusion cleared from the girl's face as she spotted Shinji. Somehow the head rolled in his general direction. "You're pretty loud, you know!" She chirped.

He trembled in place as he gazed at Emiya and Fujimura for a few moments.

"Why?" Shinji asked, tone edging towards the far side of mania.

"It's detachable~" The cheerful talking head responded.

* * *

><p>It was a much calmer group that gathered around the table an hour later. Shinji still flinched whenever he saw the detached head of their latest guest, but his body's trembling had mostly ceased.<p>

"So, what is this?" Shinji mused, desperately trying to put on a cool, unattainable air to avoid thinking too deeply about the happy looking head. The head, almost to spite him, kept rolling from side to side immediately in front of Shirou. "Beyond a travesty against man and nature."

"It's a head." Taiga bluntly declared.

"A head?" Shinji questioned.

Taiga glanced at the table and spotted the salt shaker in front of their newest guest. "A salt shaker is ahead." She blinked.

"A salt shaker isn't a head." Shinji denied.

"I agree." Taiga firmly nodded.

"Then what is it?"

"It's a head."

"A head?"

"A salt shaker is-"

"Stop!" Shirou yelped, clutching his own head. "This is Servant Berserker, Shinji." He ground out between his teeth.

Taiga smirked and tapped her fingers against the table.

Shinji's eyes widened as he looked at Berserker. She returned a smile back at him.

_Is this really the same type of creature that Uncle Kariya summoned in the last War?_

"We decided to call her Berserker for now because she doesn't have any other name." Taiga added. Remembering the incident a few nights ago, she sourly continued. "And it seemed appropriate after everything that was said and done."

Taiga's drawling tone made Shirou, the target of her poorly concealed ire gulp a little as he squirmed in place.

Shinji laughed at Shirou's plight.

"Don't gang up on Shirou!" Berserker complained, giving the two of them an evil eye. She beamed when Shirou laid a hand on top of her head, rubbing the top of her skull as he gave her a look of gratitude.

"Honestly though, it's a good thing that you got back when you did, Shinji." Shirou's exclamation made Shinji blink in surprise. "We've been waiting to consult you for these last few days."

"What can the great Shinji Matou do for you, Emiya?" Shinji puffed his chest out slightly, eagerly wanting to hear about his magical underclassman's woes. "Tell me all about your woes and I'll gladly help you soothe them!" He added with a cackle.

Shirou looked a bit put out.

"Shinji, I think you need to stop watching so much anime." Taiga helpfully chided him. "It's bad for your brain."

"Well, it's Berserker..." Shirou glanced down at Berserker's head. "She is..."

A ping went off from within Berserker's skull, making Shinji hop backwards from the table.

"Power levels at less than five percent. Time remaining for shut down: Three Days, Sixteen Hours, Forty Six Minutes..."

Berserker's dull monologue made Shinji glance at a suddenly stone faced Shirou.

"She's dying, Shinji."

* * *

><p>Taiga, Shinji, and Shirou, along with Berserker's head, made their way into the tool shed in the back of the house. Now that Shinji took the time to take in their surroundings, he was surprised to see several large generators stacked up along the wall.<p>

Taiga spotted Shinji's gaze and waved him over as Shirou walked up to Berserker's body, held up with a series of chains dangling down from the ceiling. The woman looked at the younger girl's body for a few moments in quiet contemplation.

"What's all this, Fujimura?"

Taiga's eyebrow twitched. "At least call me Miss Fujimura!" She chided, but she shook her head as she gestured at them. "I've been bringing one of these a day just to keep Berserker stable." She had a look of displeasure. "Grandpa is going to murder me when the credit card bill shows up."

"What?" Shinji blurted out, but he was distracted as Shirou carted over one of the generators. Once it was nearby, he reached up and connected Berserker's head back onto her neck. A thin choker of energy surrounded the point where the flesh met before fading back into smooth skin.

Shirou suddenly looked pale as he connected jumper cables from her jagged, golden horn to the generator.

"Here, let me help." Taiga called out, seeing how shaky looking Shirou had become. Moving over to his side, she took his arm and carried him away to a nearby chair, helping him sit down before Berserker's worried gaze.

The Servant kept still as Taiga moved over the generator and switched it on. Its puttering noises filled the shed as bolts of electricity surged up and down Berserker's horn, racing upwards from the generator itself.

"What the hell is going on here?" Shinji demanded, looking at Berserker, the generator, and Shirou in bafflement.

"Heh...I think I tried to lift someone above my weight class." Shirou wheezed, smiling weakly at Shinji.

"Remember what we told you about what happened when Shirou summoned Berserker, Shinji?" Taiga retheoretically asked. "It turns out that Berserker's armaments were what allowed her to move without Shirou's agreement to be her 'master' for a while. Without them Shirou broke down into a screaming mess when we moved from the bridge to the parts of town that had been blacked out."

Berserker's eyes were filled with some strange, disconcerting emotion. Shinji could see that the girl was forcibly keeping herself still for the sake of Shirou. With her surreal nature, he noticed that she was succeeding a lot more than a normal person would have, but a slight shifting here or there would cause Shirou to look like he was being hit in the face with a pipe.

"I've tried my best to reinforce these generators..." Shirou coughed, breaking out in sweat. "They don't instantly blow out anymore, but..."

At that moment, the generator coughed and gave out, smoke pouring out of it. As soon as it did, Berserker's head detached itself from the rest of her body. Her main body, held in the air by the chains, grew intangible and hazy before finally fading away once Berserker willed it away after feeding.

Taiga moved forward and caught the head as it dropped back to the ground with all the skill of someone used to repeating the same action.

"Minimal energy levels reached." Berserker announced in the same detached monotone as before. "Five days to shut down."

Shirou's color slowly returned to his cheeks as he took a deep breath.

"We need your help, Shinji." Shirou turned a sincere gaze onto Shinji.

Taiga glanced at her watch and winced. "I have to go. I'm going to be late for classes." She called out, making Shinji and Shirou glance at her as she unhooked Berserker's head from the generator. "I'll drag this generator outside. Let me know what happens."

"Wait, you're leaving?" Shinji demanded.

Taiga frowned at him, shaking her head. "I'm already buying a generator a day without explaining myself. I'm done for if I start skipping these meetings too. Especially since I'm covering for you two right now."

"Oh..." Shinji stepped back as Taiga gripped onto the of the handle of the wheeled generator and began to drag it out, stopping long enough to pass Berserker over to Shirou on her way out.

"Good luck, Fuji-nee."

Taiga's eyes softened as she leaned forward and quickly hugged Shirou before pulling back.

"You three need it more than I do."

They were left alone shortly afterward.

"She's going to be the weirdest high school teacher ever." Shinji gave his frank opinion of Taiga.

Shirou awkwardly laughed.

Shinji crossed his arms as he took in Berserker's expression. She looked like she wanted to say something but was forcibly keeping her mouth shut.

Shirou glanced down and gasped in surprise. "Berserker, you can talk now!" He spoke up.

"Thank you, Shirou!" Berserker let out a puff of air as she opened her mouth. "I wanted to say bye to Miss Tiger, but I didn't want to risk using up energy before we had safely disconnected my Galvanism system from the generator and then she began to walk away..."

"Okay, okay..." Shirou soothed the babbling head. "We'll just have to let her know next time."

"Galvanism, huh?" Shinji's ears perked. "That's what let her move around before, right?"

"Yes, Mister Shinji. My father designed me to be able to convert electricity into prana to power myself. He dubbed the science 'Galvanism'." Berserker offered Shinji an open smile. Shinji felt almost bad for being afraid of her.

"Well, that's inter..."

"Even the secrets that the dead possess will no longer be beyond us now! Ah-haaahahah-haaahahaha!" Berserker completed her statement. Her tone wibbled between a dry monotone and crazed, shrill laughter as she spoke with a thick accent.

Shinji blanched.

"Please don't do that, Berserker." Shirou pled. The head in his lap pouted.

"But I was just doing it like father taught me..."

* * *

><p>Shirou, not wanting to bore Berserker, set her down in front of the television in the living room. He reached for the remote and began to thumb through a few channels before settling for some mindless drivel.<p>

"There, Shinji and I are going to be just outside, alright?" He called to Berserker, but the girl was rapturously staring as teenagers seemed to swarm some hapless schmuck. Shirou smirked at the poor fictional sucker before wandering out, but not before he heard an odd, mouse like noise come from the television.

When a man's scream followed, Shirou winced.

'Oh well, I'll never have to deal with that silliness.'

"So, what are we going to do, Emiya?" Shinji asked when Shirou stepped back outside. The other boy was leaning up against the outside wall of the house, looking in the direction of the shed. "What do we have to work with?"

Shirou awkwardly rubbed at the back of his neck. "Berserker is using up all my prana right now." He admitted sheepishly, awkwardly aware of the flat stare that Shinji was leveling at him.

"Well..." Shinji shakily replied. "Berserkers are known to use up a ton of energy. It doesn't help that her head is one of the two cores. That's where the drain is concentrated the most."

Shirou smiled, relieved that Shinji knew that much.

Shinji began to pace back and forth, rubbing a spot above his left ear as he kept his gaze focused on the ground. "Okay, the majority of the body has gone spiritual, including the core in the heart. Why don't you have her go spiritual entirely?" He asked, looking at Shirou.

Shirou shook his head. "It doesn't work. Berserker tried that and her energy kept going down. Plus we couldn't feed her any new sources of energy that way either." He sadly responded. "First thing we thought about."

"Okay, okay..." Shinji raised his hand to make Shirou stop talking. "How badly is the drain?"

"If everything is connected? She went from a month to two weeks left by the time we got to the house that night. We detached all her limbs and head from the body and we wound up with one week left by the time that the lights came on six hours later."

Shinji winced at those figures. "Why don't you have her constantly connected?" He slapped his face, shaking his head a few moments later. "Nevermind. They'd think Fujimura is a terrorist or something if she kept buying generators."

"Yeah... we're running out of stores to buy from in the area." Shirou shook his head. "We can keep her where she's at for another four days, maybe. We basically have to feed her a generator every six to eight hours to keep here where she's at right now."

"And you can't reinforce them because you lack prana?"

Shirou nodded.

"Did you try formalcraft yet?" Shinji asked, but only received a blank look for his efforts. "Of course not." He sighed, forgetting that his friend was still rather ignorant. He wished he could beat Shirou's father one of these days, but that was neither here or there. "Okay, we can use formalcraft and take some ambient mana from the land and use it for prana. It'll work as well as your personal stores of odic prana."

"How does it work?"

Shinji's train went off the rails at that question. "...fucking formalcraft, I don't know how it works." He replied sincerely. He had never actually thought about looking it up since he had been trying to practice how to open up his own circuit with Shirou's help.

Shirou winced.

"This isn't good, is it?" Shirou simply retorted when Shinji furiously ran his hands through his hair, thoroughly messing it up.

"Okay, okay!" Shinji repeated, motions slowing down as he focused on Shirou. "We need to go ahead and look it up. We can't do a damn thing until we get your reinforcement working again, right? Right." He answered himself to Shirou's great consternation.

"Can we go ahead and pick it up now?" Shirou hopefully wondered. He glanced back towards Berserker, but she seemed to be completely absorbed by the show. "We should be there and back before it's too late."

Shinji shook his head. "No, I have to go there myself." When Shirou's expression fell, the other boy shrugged. "We have a boundary field. I don't think it'd be good if he knew another about another mage."

"Why's that?" Shirou quirked his head. "Is there something wrong with that?"

Shinji thought about what Zouken Matou would do if he found out about Shirou's summons. "Let's say that I don't really think he would appreciate me teaching you some of our rituals. Even if it was a fair trade at the time."

Honestly, he felt sort of gypped since Shirou's question on the existing magic circle in his shed grew into a bodiless Servant, while his advice on magic circuits hadn't allowed Shinji to activate his yet.

"Well, I don't want to get you in trouble." Shirou nodded, eyes narrowing as he nodded in agreement. "I'm sorry I even have to trouble you this much, but..." He trailed off.

Shinji glanced at Berserker.

"It's fine. She's cute at least." Shinji allowed. Thinking quickly, he quickly explained away his charity. "You, of course, will help me summon my own cute Servant when this is all said and done."

Once Shirou agreed, Shinji was seen out of the Emiya home and began his trip back to his mansion.

_Meh, the things I do for..._ Shinji stuck his tongue out in annoyance as he cut that thought off.

...

Shirou waited until Shinji was out of sight before he turned back and headed back into his house. He blinked as he saw Berserker's head roll its way out into the hallway and spin a few times before coming to a rest, facing him.

"Shirou! Did Mister Shinji leave already?" She pouted up at him. "Why didn't you let me know so I could say goodbye?"

Shirou began to walk towards Berserker, scooping up the head in his arms and brushing off some imaginary dirt from her hair.

"Sorry, he needed to head out to look up something so we can fix you." He explained as he considered Berserker for a few moments.

"Okay! Well, what do we do until he gets back?" Berserker wondered happily, looking like butter couldn't melt in her mouth as she puckered her lips slightly.

A look of inspiration suddenly crossed Shirou's face. "That's it!" When Berserker's eyes widened and smile impossibly widened, he concluded. "I know how we can get you mobile around the house!"

Berserker pouted.

…

Berserker curiously glanced at her Master's back as he rummaged inside one of the closets in the house. Several game boards were set down next to him along with old, empty boxes that seemed to have been miniature statues of various creatures.

"What are we doing, Shirou?" Berserker wondered, trying to roll around so she could get a better view of things. Her horn, thudding into the ground repeatedly, unfortunately prevented her from actually doing anything, though.

Moments later, Shirou triumphantly pulled his head out of the closest, holding a large box in his arms.

"We're going to get you a little bit more mobile." Shirou replied as he bent down to pick up Berserker. She snuggled herself against his chest to keep from rolling off the box labeled 'Erector Set'.

Berserker wondered why Shirou's fingers twitched as she snuggled into his chest.

* * *

><p>"I'm home." Shinji uselessly called out as he closed the front door behind him. When he received the standard lack of response, Shinji let out a sigh of annoyance. He headed upstairs to his room to fetch some paper and a pen.<p>

Seeing a light shining through the bottom of Sakura's room, he decided to check in on her before locking himself away for the night.

"Brother?" Sakura looked up from where she was reading through her biology text. "You're home early."

Shinji shifted his grip on his notebook. "I needed to take care of something." He held up his notebook along with a math book he had grabbed from his room. "But I wanted to check on your first before I took care of things."

Sakura smiled a little at him, expression softening a little. "Do you want me to warm up your dinner before you go?" She hopefully wondered.

Shinji's stomach let out a growl of agreement, making Sakura's smile widen a little bit more, but the older of the pair shook his head regrettably.

"Sorry, I really need to take care of this."

Sakura's face fell a bit. "Oh..." She whispered, shifting a bit on top of her bed. The sleeves of her blouse pulled up with the motion, revealing a large bandage on the back of her right forearm. When Sakura noticed that Shinji had spotted it, she immediately tugged it down.

"Hey, what happened?" Shinji blinked and took a few steps forwards, unaware of that injury before now.

"Ah...I tripped." Sakura sheepishly replied. She immediately moved to cloud the issue. "I treated the cut, but I think I'm going to have to get rid of my blouse." She glanced over to her hamper, causing Shinji to do the same.

A light blue blouse with a jagged tear along the right arm greeted Shinji. The older of the two let out an annoyed click.

"Don't do that." He chided as he glanced back at Sakura, annoyed at the idea. "We can still fix it up."

"You think we can fix anything, brother."

"That's because everything can get fixed." Shinji insisted, not wanting to waste money trying to buy a brand new sweater.

Sakura eyes darkened a little bit. "But some things just stay broken forever." Realizing what she said, the younger girl glanced back at her book, squeezing the covers a little bit.

Shinji clicked his tongue as he was suddenly brutally reminded of why he had come back.

"I'll be down in the library if you need me Sakura." With that, he turned and headed out of Sakura's room.

"Brother!" Sakura called out to Shinji, making him glance back at her over his shoulder. "I...I didn't mean to argue." She tried to explain herself, stammering a little as she continued. "I bet we can fix the sweater and make it better than new!"

Shinji could see that she didn't quite believe that, but he let it go.

"It's just a sweater, Sakura." He soothed the girl. "We can always buy a new one."

Sakura remained silent for a long time after Shinji left.

* * *

><p>The scratching of Shinji's pen filled the old library. A treasure trove of knowledge from generations of his family filled the expansive room.<p>

His nose twitched.

Unfortunately it had the dust of generations lingering around as well. The table he was sitting at was in the far corner of the room, making it even worse for the teenager as it seemed that all the dirt was drawn towards the battery operated table lamp he had turn on so he could read.

"Man, I wish this house joined the rest of the century." Shinji groused, rubbing his eyes as he turned away from another book on formalcraft. The boy glanced over the pitch black rows of bookcases and shook his head, wishing that Zouken had installed some damn lights in this room.

_Honestly, you'd need to be a bat or something to see anything in this freaking cave._ Shinji thought, remembering old movies where monsters hunted down their victims in the darkness. _Even then, the damn thing would probably stumble over its own feet in this mess._

Shinji lightly kicked at a stack of books that had been already next to his desk before he arrived. With grumbled complaints, Shinji went back to his books and continued thumbing through the materials available.

"Shinji..." Shinji froze up as he heard his grandfather's voice rise up behind him. His grip painfully tightened around his pen as he peered into the darkness. Zouken stepped into the teenager's range of sight, glancing dismissively at the boy's table lamp. "What are you doing down here so late at night?" He directly questioned.

Shinji turned a page in his notebook discretely, exposing mathematical formula instead of the notes and scribbles he had been working on from the various books around him.

"I was reading through these books while I was doing my homework." Shinji honestly replied, not wanting to lie more than he thought he could. "But I didn't want Sakura to know, so I told her I was just studying my math."

Zouken glanced at the notebook and then at Shinji. The boy had never felt more like a bug than he did when his grandfather focused on his eyes.

"You've always been such a hard worker." Zouken mused, sounding almost mocking as he focused on Shinji's eyes. "That's fine, then. I'll leave you to your...studies." With those parting words, Zouken's figure quietly moved back into the library, floor boards creaking beneath him as he went.

_How did I miss him the first time?_ Shinji thought, never more aware of how much he had to stay on his toes around his grandfather. _I wonder why he only reacted when I came in this time? Was it because it was late?_

The amount of time it took for his grandfather to arrive was curious too. Shinji decided to test the time limit another time. For now, he decided to fake doing some more math homework for an extra half hour then go back to work.

* * *

><p>Shirou's hands shook a little as he thought about his latest project. Yet he kept being reminded of Berserker's plight each time that he looked at her. The disembodied head simply returned his empty gaze with a smile.<p>

"So what are we going to build?" Berserker wondered eagerly as she rolled back and forth in front of Shirou. "We should build a balista. My father always used to say that you could never go wrong with a balista."

Shirou glanced at Berserker.

"It's true. I can tell you because I read it from his mind when he went offline." She proudly replied. "That's where I found out that father was right about Galvanism. Nothing is secret from it!"

"Is that so?" Shirou smiled down at Berserker. "You just become more amazing every day."

"...not as amazing as you, Master." Berserker glanced away, tapping her horn against the table to turn her head away from Shirou shyly.

Shirou awkwardly laughed, scratching the back of his head.

"We should build more things together when you repair me." Berserker suddenly mused, glancing at the unfinished pile of levers and engines that Shirou had begun to piece together. "I want to work side by side with you..."

He silently reached towards her, but pulled back his hand when a minor spark went up his finger.

"Berserker...!" Shirou complained, sucking on his burnt fingertip.

"Hee...don't worry, I believe in you." Berserker spoke up, having read Shirou's concerns and dismissing them with certainty. "If it's you, I know that you'll do whatever you set your heart to accomplishing."

Shirou's hand limply dropped to his side as he stared at Berserker in amazement.

"...of course. I'll save you no matter what, Berserker!"

Berserker smiled.

* * *

><p>T-Minus 4 days and 16 hours until total system shut down.<p> 


	4. Chapter 4

Fate/Stay Night and its spin offs are properties of Type-Moon, Nitroplus, and Image Epoch. All additional references belong to their respective companies.

Chapter 4: Sustainability II

* * *

><p>The dawning rays of the morning sun cast a glow across Fuyuki City. The early hour was apparent as an icy fog lingered near the river side. Along one of the banks, a solitary figure, clad in dark robes slowly walked. His stride was purposeful as he glanced around the area, a fossilized wooden block clenched in his fist.<p>

Despite the chill from the morning, his expression didn't shown any signs of discomfort. In fact, his expression was almost eerily placid.

Kirei Kotomine had tolerated worse things than this in his life, after all.

The priest glanced at the block he had clenched in his fist as he arrived half a mile south of the main bridge. Looking up at the sky, a faint frown crossed his lips as he mentally calculated the hour. Stuffing the artifact away into his robes, he casually brushed some stray condensation off himself as he turned away from the river.

His steady pace got him back to the bridge in time to see the worker crew from the city hard at work, fixing and replacing the lights along the bridge.

'Now, who could have caused this?' Kirei glanced away from the workers towards the river below. 'And I wonder if this might be enough of a reason to call Gilgamesh back from his trip?'

If the artifact he had used to track down the disaster the other day hadn't lied, then there was a Heroic Spirit somewhere in Fuyuki. And they were still around, from the fact the energy could still be tracked to a degree.

Smirking, the priest turned away from the workers and headed back to the church.

Perhaps he could give his apprentice a bit of homework. The girl was rather good at whatever task he set upon her so far.

* * *

><p>Shinji woke up choking on air as he felt dust briefly clog his airways. The teenager hacked and fell backwards off his chair to a great clamor of noise as his feet flew up and kicked at the reading desk he had been sleeping on.<p>

Several books and notes went scattering about, but fortunately none landed on him as he tried to get a clean breath of air as he continued coughing as he shakily rose with a splitting headache from his poor landing. Giving up on getting any fresh air in the stuffy library, Shinji ran with staggering steps out of the ancient library. The moment that he threw open the door, he felt blessedly fresh air fill his lungs.

The teary eyed boy took several deep gulps of air before wiping at his eyes to rub the moisture out. His flushed face, feeling warm from the panic earlier, began to clear as he shakily leaned up against the wall next to the door way.

"Are you alright, brother?" Sakura's quiet voice cut in from the side, making Shinji shakily glance over and smile at his little sister.

"I'm fine." He squeaked, voice shaky from the earlier strain. "I got some dust choking me in there."

Sakura faintly frowned. "You shouldn't be in there." A spark of something unrecognizable crossed her eyes. "It's dirty in there." She insisted, stepping towards Shinji.

"I-it's okay. Don't worry about it." He held up his hands and shook his head from side to side to reassure her. "So what are you doing up so early?" Shinji asked, toeing the door closed while he tried to distract Sakura.

The girl, dressed in a cream pants and light blue sweater, found herself on the defensive. "I heard you." She stated, sounding somewhat insincere to Shinji's ears.

Shinji blinked. "But why are you completely dressed?" The only reason he was still in his school uniform was because of having fallen asleep in the library. The entire house was still dimly lit, with only the mere hints of morning sun coming in through the curtains in the living room ahead of them.

"...I wanted to do some chores." Sakura replied in an oddly clipped tone, as if she didn't want to talk about it anymore. "I feel bad about the work load the maid always has when she comes by to visit us every week."

Shinji's ears grew a bit hot as Sakura shot him a bit of a chiding stare. "T-that's what she's here for, right?" He stammered forcibly.

"You should live a cleaner lifestyle." Sakura's quiet statement made Shinji stagger back, instinctively raising his hands to defend himself.

"You don't understand!" Shinji blurted before turning and running away from the girl before he could really think why he was doing that. Stopping at the stairs, he quickly glanced over his shoulder at Sakura. "I just can't wear my school uniform all day! I have a social life outside of it!" He defended his massive amount of laundry plaintively before giving up the day to his little sister as he fled upstairs.

Sakura, who was staring at the spot where Shinji had fled, had a tiny smile on her face. The expression faded into a grimace of disgust and pain after a few moments though. The girl clutched at her stomach with claw like fingers as she felt bile try to rise up her throat as her thighs clenched together.

* * *

><p>"Shirou, I'm home~" Taiga sang out, throwing open the door into the Emiya home. Her hair rustled in the morning breeze as she stepped in. "Render unto Fujimura what is hers!" She sing songed as she stepped forward.<p>

Taiga was so distracted with her grandiose speech that she didn't spot the tiny blur clattering down before her. She bent down towards the rack next to the entrance to take off her shoes when she finally noticed the thing that had been steadily approaching her from the direction of the living room, several metallic limbs clicked against the floor.

"Let's have some breakfeeeee!" Taiga squealed in dismay, falling back onto her rear and scrambling backwards.

Berserker's head, held aloft by a harness of plastic and metal, latched together by steel bolts and pulleys, smiled happily at Taiga.

"Good morning!" The construct's two toned eyes sparkled at Taiga as she twitched her head to the side. A spark of electricity ran along the frame holding her up. One of the limbs holding the girl's head up twitched before rising up and waving at Taiga.

The older woman twitched.

"Master didn't want me to get my hair dirty anymore!" Berserker enthused, the multiple limbs clicking as she moved from side to side in front of the boggled Taiga. "So he made me this set of legs to walk around until I get my body back!"

"...Shirou!" Taiga roared for her wayward ward.

…

Shirou felt daggers and swords bury themselves into the soft flesh of his back as he tried his hardest to ignore the accusing stares of Taiga. The skillet wouldn't tend to itself if he spent his time trying to justify himself to the older woman.

Taiga, who was somewhere between moral outrage and sheer, unrelenting fear, leaned a little bit away from Berserker. The girl continued to happily charge from one side of the living room to the other, little plastic and steel limbs merrily squeaking away, sparks flashing out from her head across the contraption she was somehow granting locomotion to.

"Whee~" Berserker cheered as she briefly turned about face and charged towards Shirou, who was finally exiting the kitchen. "Can I help? Can I? Can I?" She happily asked as she darted in and out amongst her master's feet as he walked forwards, balancing trays of food in his hands.

Shirou laughed and merely tried his best at avoiding the excitable girl. "No, I'm fine." He paused long enough to speak down to Berserker, who pouted up at him.

Seeing that Berserker wasn't going to let Shirou go with only that, Taiga leaned forwards and grasped Berserker in her arms, pulling the mobile head towards her. The magenta haired girl continued looking vaguely huffy, the bun that her hair had been pulled up into loosening somewhat and spilling hair down Taiga's arms as she settled the rambunctious spirit down on her lab.

Shirou flashed a thankful smile at Taiga as he set down the plates at their table, and Taiga was briefly fooled into returning her smile as he settled down across from her.

Then she remembered why she was annoyed when Berserker leapt onto the table, little legs skittering across the surface of the table as she took a spot for herself. The faint tingling in her hands from grasping Berserker when she moved made Taiga glance at the spirit in mild surprise and then at Shirou with aggravation.

"Shirou..." Taiga's eyebrow twitched. "Explain. Now." She demanded, ignoring the wafting of the delicious breakfast spread before her for once.

"Uhm..." Shirou uneasily chuckled, rubbing at the bottom of his left eye. "I didn't want Berserker's head to just roll around everywhere. There could be an accident that way." He tried to explain his reasoning first.

Berserker looked up from where she was eating in bird like pecking motions from her soul. "Master is kind." She agreed, nodding. The motion caused a line to smoothly formed on Berserker's neck. Moments later the girl's head was lifted off the harness she was riding in by Shirou himself.

"See?" He gestured, showing that the harness was simply a series of legs hooked up to a circular ring. "Nothing expensive. Just an Erector Set I had back when I was a kid." He reached forwards and flicked his finger against a piece of string that ran along a leg before settling Berserker back in the device.

A faint spark of electricity ran along the entire frame once Berserker settled back in it, causing the limbs of the platform to twitch in a lifelike manner as it shuddered once before settling down.

"...I think we're spitting in the face of nature at this point." Taiga muttered, slightly disturbed by the display.

Shirou shrugged helplessly. "It's magic?"

"Papa didn't like nature." Berserker spoke up, in between bites of her breakfast. "He said it wasn't non-Euclid enough."

Shirou tried desperately to ignore the glares fired his way by Taiga for the rest of his meal.

* * *

><p>Sakura occasionally gave Shinji a few confused glances as the two of them walked up to the door of the Emiya home. Unlike her school uniform, Shinji was still wearing his normal clothes. "Are you sure you don't want to go to school today?" She hesitantly asked. "Grandpa might get worried if you miss too much."<p>

Shinji snorted, playing with the tip of his belt. "Trust me, he wouldn't care if I dropped out." He replied unthinkingly.

Sakura gasped in surprise, clutching her book bag to her chest a bit fearfully. Shinji's calm expression broke down into mild panic as he turned towards her.

"N-not that I'm thinking of doing that!"

Sakura breathed a bit easier. "So you're going to be helping Emiya-san, then?" She wondered, peering up at him through lowered eyelashes as she confirmed. "Then you'll go back to classes?"

"Heh...yeah." Shinji nodded.

"Shirou! I'm heading off now!" The Matou duo heard a shout from within the house as Taiga suddenly erupted out from the depths of the house, throwing open the door with a flourish. "See me off!" The older woman shouted into the house before she noticed the siblings off to the side.

Her eyes widened when she set her gaze on Sakura.

"Aah!" Sakura squeaked in surprise.

Taiga was in front of the girl before either of the two could react. "So cute! You're wearing the same uniform I used to have!" The older woman cooed, looking over the sailor suit styled uniform with the crimson and gold ribbon with crosses around Sakura's neck.

Sakura glanced over at Shinji for support when Taiga started patting the white beanie on her head, but her brother merely looked perversely amused with the whole affair, lingering up against the wall running along the border of the Emiya property. 'Traitor!' She thought towards the teenager as she was enfolded in a hug.

"Ooh! Why can't I have a cute little ward like you instead?" Taiga continued to gush.

"I can hear that, you know." Shirou dryly replied, stepping out into the street as well. Just like Shinji, he was dressed in casual clothing, wiping his hands off on his shirt. Sakura stared in fascination for a few moments as the act of drying his hands let her see the boy's well toned abs.

Sakura blushed bright red.

"You're being very uncute lately." Taiga clarified, sticking her tongue out at Shirou as she let Sakura go. She huffed in surprise when the girl buried her face back in her gut, wrapping her arms around Taiga. "Aww! She likes me!"

"Bah!" Shirou sniffed good naturedly, letting his shirt fall back. "See if I care." He grinned.

Shinji, having observed silently all along, barely resisted the urge to break out in laughter. "Morning Emiya." A bit of his mirth bubbled out of his tone as his friend gave him an odd look. He shook his head and held up a normal notebook. "I think I have some ideas."

Shirou's eyes lit up as he nodded, expression growing serious.

Taiga, in the midst of ruffling Sakura's hair, glanced over at Shinji. "Hey, you're not going to walk her the rest of the way?" She sounded disapproving.

"Sakura is a grown girl. She can get the rest of the way there herself." Shinji snorted. "She can't keep relying on other people the rest of her life." He simply stated with full conviction.

Taiga rolled her eyes.

Sakura, having fought her blush down, pulled away from Taiga. "Alright brother!" She nodded with a faint smile.

"I'm going to be here all day." Shinji pushed himself off from the wall to walk towards Shirou, keeping his gaze on Sakura. "It's better if you just went home right away." He denied, shaking his head.

"I'll see you later, then." Sakura's expression fell a little bit as she turned and headed off to the direction of her school.

Taiga scratched at her chin. "I'll see you both later!" She smiled. "I think I have to do a side errand before I head off to classes." She nodded to the two boys before rushing off after Sakura.

"Geez, she'll just get pampered that way." Shinji complained, crossing his arms.

Shirou clicked his tongue. "You should be a bit nicer to her." He mused as the girl looked up when Taiga joined her side, smiling a bit awkwardly when Taiga began to animatedly talk to her as they moved out of sight around a corner.

"It's tough love, Emiya!" Shinji puffed his chest out. "Man eats man. She can't cling to me forever." He slapped himself lightly over his heart. "You have to build up some fortitude."

"Stop quoting bad anime and get inside." Shirou good naturedly snarked as he led the way inside. The good mood around the two continued as they headed inside, locking the doors behind them as they wandered through the hallways and living room to Shirou's workshop.

"Is that...squeaking?" Shinji asked, faintly picking up the sound from within the shed.

Shirou paused at the door to the workshop, keenly remembering what had happened last time. "Well...there may have been a slight addition I gave Berserker since last time we met." He tried to gently work the topic.

Shinji frowned, not liking the hesitant tone that Shirou was adopting. "Like what?" He trailed off, already taking a step backwards.

"I kind of...gaveBerserkerasetoflegs." Shirou gave up on being diplomatic when he heard the darkening tone in his friend's voice. Before Shinji could yell at him, Shirou threw open the door to the workshop so he could hopefully not get buried under recriminations.

Berserker, who had been walking along the top of Shirou's main bench on her spider like lower torso, glanced up from where she was batting a screw driver from side to side. "Good morning, Shinji!" She smiled, eyes and horn gleaming in the light pouring into the shed from outside. "Wonderful day, isn't it?"

"Man, why do you hate Nature?" Shinji complained with a weaselly tone.

Shirou winced. That had been one of the complaints Taiga had too, wasn't it?

Berserker's grin widened. He hadn't fainted today! Maybe she and Shinji were even better friends now. "Hug!" She cheered, throwing herself at Shinji's head, limbs curling towards his face to embrace the other boy.

Thump.

"He fell again, Master!" Berserker announced in a betrayed, watery tone as she looked up at Shirou from her perch on Shinji's unconscious body.

Shirou sighed.

* * *

><p>"What do we know now?" Shirou spoke up, arms up this elbows dirty with oil was he looked up from the guts of a generator.<p>

Shinji, refusing to acknowledge he had fainted, glanced over at Shirou from the notes he had taken from the library. "I'm going to need more time." Shinji spoke up, thumbing through his notebook. "I could really only copy things down that I thought were interesting."

Berserker, pouting heavily at Shinji for ignoring her, was walking back and forth in front of him in an attempt to get acknowledged. "Like what?" She spoke up, moving into Shinji's line of sight.

The boy repressed a shudder.

"So far I'm looking at the basis for our magecraft. It's 'absorption'." He kept his eyes a bit over Berserker's hairline and over towards Shirou. "I need more time."

"Alright." Shirou nodded in agreement, moving towards the door. "I'm going to see what I can scrounge up." He brushed past Shinji, allowing Berserker to leap on top of his shoulder.

Shinji blinked in surprise, half turning on his stool as he followed Shirou with his gaze. "What do you mean?" He demanded, eyes narrowing as he leaned forwards.

Shirou paused at the door and looked back at Shinji. "I need to find a way to jerry rig something for Berserker." The girl and the device she was riding in began to dissolve into motes of golden light. "Squeeze some use out of these generators. I need some parts before I can do anything, though. Especially since I'm lacking enough energy to do basically structural analysis."

"Wait! You're just ditching me?" Shinji demanded angrily.

"I trust you, partner."

Shinji blinked in surprise. "Uhm..." He awkwardly stammered, leaning away from the sincere looking teenager.

Shirou smirked a little. "Let's do our best, okay?" He shifted his shoulder a bit when Berserker moved to clasp onto his arm firmly.

"Okay..." Shinji nodded a bit timidly. "Just get back soon! I'm not letting you ride off my accomplishments!" He huffed and turned back to his note book. Shinji's expression was a little bit happy, though.

Shirou wasn't sure why.

He turned and headed out of the shed and into his house. "Berserker, I'm going to go into town. I'll be back later." Shirou began, reaching up to pull Berserker loose, but he felt her limbs grasp onto him even more tightly.

Only a pair of mismatched eyes appeared, directly staring into his. "I won't be a bother, Master." The girl's voice timidly began. "Can't I go with you?" Her voice implored. "Please?" She wheedled, manifesting more of herself to give him a sufficiently pouty look.

Shirou tried to look upwards.

Berserker began to crawl up his shoulder towards his head. He could see her lips trembling on the peripheral of his vision.

"Master? Please?" He felt the cool metal of Berserker's horn tap against his cheek.

Shirou began to tremble as he tried to resist.

"Please?"

Shirou quickly snatched Berserker and held her away from him. The girl merely continued beckoning at him, this time by animating her limbs as they beckoned at him with cat like motions.

"Fine, fine." Shirou sighed, hanging his head in shame.

* * *

><p>"Whee!" Berserker cheered from on top of Shirou's head, tightening her hold as Shirou rang the bell of his bicycle as the two of them rode downhill from the Emiya home on Shirou's bicycle. "Faster! Faster!" She cheered as Shirou's legs furiously peddled them past an alley.<p>

Sakura stepped out a few moments later, casting her gaze at the retreating back of the magus. Behind her, Taiga motionlessly stood, eyes blank from the suggestions Sakura had laid on the older woman. The middle schooler felt a pang in her heart when she looked back at the woman, but the monstrously huge magical signature she felt from the boy made her anxiously chew on her lip.

"How long will they be gone?" Sakura asked Taiga.

The older woman quirked her head. "The electronics store that Shirou goes to is about twenty minutes away."

The young magus considered. "Let's go. You'll let me inside." She ordered the older woman.

"Of course." Taiga slowly nodded, turning and leading Sakura back up the hill at a brisk pace. The girl hung her head and clutched at her school uniform's skirt tightly for a moment before she began to follow after the woman.

Sakura had to see what her brother was doing.

Especially now that she had discovered that he had been spending all his time with a magus.

_I won't let you be used, brother._ She swore to herself. _If your friend is doing that, I'll destroy his workshop myself._

* * *

><p>Shirou's pace slowed down as he began to approach the market. He glanced up briefly to acknowledge the girl on his head. "Berserker," He started as his eyes went back to looking ahead of him. "I'm going to need you to be quiet here, okay?"<p>

"Right!"

The teenager got a few strange glances from several adults he recognized as he biked down sidewalk. Shirou raised a hand briefly to offer waves at familiar faces. His pace slowed down as he leisurely weaved around foot traffic.

"Good morning, Mister Emiya!" Shirou was cheerfully greeted by Ichigo, a six year old standing in front of his parent's store with a broom, as he pedaled up to the grocery. "Shouldn't you be at school?" The boy asked, clutching at the wood in his hand with a naughty look on his face. "Are you ditching?" He asked happily, eyes sparkling with mirth.

Shirou leaned slightly to the side, kicking out with his leg to prop himself and the bike up as he paused in front of him. "No, Fuji-nee called me out today." He wagged a finger at the apron wearing boy, glancing up into the market to see his father and mother tending to customers inside the market.

The redhead felt Berserker shift on top of his head. "What are you doing here, though? Shouldn't you be starting school soon?" He wondered with a touch of concern.

Ichigo smiled at him. "Momma and poppa needed my help." He puffed up self importantly. "So I got called out today."

Shirou laughed. "Well, keep up the good work. I'll be back later for the usual." He nodded at the boy as he pushed off and started pedaling away.

"Don't be a stranger!" The boy's cry made him smirk as he slowed down his pedaling enough to glance both ways down the street before crossing it over to the southern side of the market place. The electronics store up ahead gleamed to him with all the promise of potential solutions.

A few older people gave him confused glances as he parked his bike up against the bike rack in front, but ignored him otherwise as he locked it up. Feeling Berserker's limbs shift on top of his head, Shirou took care not to jostle the Servant as he finished up and moved into the store.

"Why if it isn't my favorite customer!" Old man Sanada himself was tending the front of the store today as Shirou entered, holding up a hand to greet the man. "How are you doing today?" He offered a slightly yellowed smile at Shirou.

"I'm doing alright, could be better with some grounding cables, though." Shirou greeted the man, trying to stay polite while otherwise aiming for a swifter conclusion to this meeting than usual.

The older man, surprised with Shirou's forwardness this time, took off his faded baseball cap, revealing his receding hairline. "Oh? No time to chew the fat today?" He wondered, making Shirou sadly shake his head.

"Sorry, isn't that I don't want to, but I have to get home to take care of something important." Shirou helplessly sighed.

"Alright, let me grab some in the back." The man scratched at his head before slipping the hat back on. "What kind do you need? Pigtail connection?"

Shirou shrugged. "Any kind, really. I just need as much as you have available."

Sanada nodded and moved back to the door set up behind his counter. "Be back in a bit, then." He glanced over at Shirou as he opened the door, but thought better of whatever he was going to ask and slipped inside.

Silence descended on Shirou as he glanced around the store, not seeing anyone else. The redhead sighed and settled his nerves.

"Is this alright, Master?" Berserker's voice quietly asked from above. A note of confusion was in her voice. "He seemed to want to talk to you." She paused. "Like the boy." She added, somewhat unnecessarily.

Shirou glanced up, trying to look past his forehead but failing as he replied. "What?" He blinked as he realized. "Oh! Don't worry about it!" He chuckled a little. "Ichigo doesn't yammer on forever." He awkwardly scratched his nose. "I can't really afford to talk so much to him today, so I had to shut him down quick."

"Ooh!" Berserker let out a low pitched drone of assent, leaning forwards eagerly as she took in his words. "So when other people start talking forever it's good to shut them up, right?" Her eyes sparkled with wonder.

Shirou hung his head, ashamed at what he was teaching her. "It isn't that, but..." He began, but stiffened when the door to the back of the store opened.

"Eh? Is there someone else out there?" Ichigo spoke up, face hidden behind a box which he promptly set down. He wiped the back of his left hand against his forehead as he looked around, face falling a bit. "Oh, darn these ears."

Shirou gave the older man a forced smile when Ichigo turned towards him.

"Well, here you are. I went ahead and boxed 'em up for you."

Shirou quickly paid for the grounding cables and smiled at the older man. "I'll see you later, sir." The teenager quickly picked up the box and started out.

"Shirou." Ichigo's voice made the boy halt.

"Yes?" He asked, turning his head slightly in the man's direction.

"You take care, alright? Come back when you got the time." He faintly smiled. "It's good having someone to talk to."

Shirou felt guilt curl his insides, but he nodded at the shop owner with a faint smile. "Of course!" With that, he headed out of the shop.

"Could have sworn I heard a girl talking to him, though." Ichigo muttered, turning back to take care of cleaning up the back of the store.

* * *

><p>When the pair of woman arrived, Sakura already felt the filmy sensation of a barrier around the home now that she had her magic circuits activated. The girl chewed on her lip as she tried to compare the field to others she had heard about.<p>

A prod with her senses made the entire thing ripple.

She couldn't feel the build up for an attack, but...

"It's sensing my intentions..." Sakura breathed, a bit amazed at how such a seemingly weak field could do that. "This is going to make things more difficult." She muttered, knowing that she'd probably be alerting Shinji's friend.

Still, this had to be done for her own peace of mind.

_Pardon me for the intrusion._ Sakura internally begged forgiveness as she followed Taiga into the Emiya home. Her heart began to wildly beat as she felt the sensation of the barrier triggering. Knowing that she was running on a very fixed time table, the girl still made a point of bowing slightly before taking off her shoes for a pair of slippers.

Sakura glanced over at Taiga. _Wait for me here. I'll be back soon._ She projected the command into the older woman's mind, gritting her teeth as she had to expend quite a bit of energy to actually make the order take.

Taiga shook a bit as her mind almost seemed to take strength from the familiar surroundings, but Sakura was stronger. The older woman placidly nodded and waited for Sakura as the girl made her way into the house.

Sakura briefly looked in the direction of the backyard but dismissed it for now. No one would ever hide their workshop in such an obvious place like a shed. Having decided that, the girl ignored the living room and the veranda beyond it in favor of the back rooms.

...

Her hackles began to rise the longer she went without finding her big brother. Closet doors were thrown open, mats were moved aside with Taiga's help, and Sakura cast her senses as far as her own training could possibly afford her.

The barrier around her continued to ripple faster the longer she was exploring as well.

More than five minutes passed before she gave up, nerves jangling badly from being in another mage's territory.

"This is more a hotel than a house." Sakura muttered as she returned to the hallway leading outside. She glanced up the stairs leading up to the second floor, but the fearful girl knew better than to press her luck. "Miss Fujimura, please close and lock up the door once we're outside." She commanded the older woman as she walked past her.

"Yes."

Silence surrounded the two women as Sakura led them far away from the other mage's territory. The trip downhill was only punctuated by the two of them being gazed at by an elderly man, but Sakura's control of Taiga was finer outside of the Emiya home. The two of them were eventually seated on some low benches outside of a small park along the path to Sakura's school.

Sakura finally allowed herself breath out a sigh of relief. "I'm going to have to stay away from that house for a while." She muttered to herself, feeling the film of the barrier still on her. "At least until I no longer have traces of this on me."

Taiga shuffled listlessly at her side, drawing Sakura's attention to the older woman.

"Oh!" Sakura gasped, holding her hand up against her mouth. "I'm sorry..." She launched her prana into the next command. "Please go back to doing what you had originally planned on after seeing me to school."

Taiga's arm jerked a little, but she began to rise in response to the command. As the girl saw the woman turn to move away, she second guessed herself when she realized how easily she had gone in with Taiga's help.

"Wait!" Sakura called out, making Taiga paused. She hesitated for a few moments before continuing. "You'll continue to aid me until such a time I deem it unnecessary..." The girl's stomach twisted as she began. "Do you understand?"

Taiga remained motionless.

Sakura rose to her feet, brow furrowing in surprise at how much resistance this woman had given her. "Do you?" She repeated with greater force in her command, walking towards Taiga. Sakura began to break out in sweat as she felt her insides began to stir as her inheritance began to awaken with her usage of further prana.

"...yes." Taiga replied.

Sakura hugged herself. "Go on, then." The command came out in shuddering breath. "Please leave." She staggered back to the bench and heavily sat down as she followed Taiga's retreat with a hazy gaze. The young girl remained motionless as she tried to wait the sensations out, feeling alternating current of hot and cold flowing through her veins as her damn body reminded her of her own place in life.

"Shinji...what are you doing?" The girl wrapped her arms around her knees. "Do you want to wind up like Uncle Kariya?"

Silence answered her plea.

* * *

><p>"Emiya, are you sure this is enough?" Shinji demanded as he and Shirou moved around the circle on the floor of the shed. The Matou heir was running the cables Shirou had bought from the hardware store through several metal loops before latching them closed. "If it's this simple I'm going to kick your ass for wasting my time!"<p>

Immediately above the circle hung Berserker's body while her head was standing next to Taiga.

"It'll have to be enough." Shirou countered, wiping his brow from where he was hammering in the loops into the ground on the opposite side of the circle from Shinji. "We still haven't figured out how to make a decent siphon yet, so we'll have to settle on some minor magecraft to link these cables into the ground."

Taiga walked back into the shed, "I got the grounding set up outside." She cheerfully reported, wiping off some dirt from her cheek, but only smearing more on it in the process. "You better be sure this will work. This is as far as we can go." She winced. "My grandfather already revoked my card!"

The older woman refused to whine, but it still hurt to see the generators.

Shirou glanced up with a grateful smile. "Thank you, Taiga-nee." His eyes glanced at the circle below them and then up at Berserker's body. "We just need to make sure the mana doesn't cycle back through the circuit and back into the generator."

The two teenagers continued hammering and setting up the ground cables for a few more moments.

"These aren't even reinforced, though." Shinji began, but his complaint died as he looked past Shirou. "Plus this is amateurish! Don't you know that you have a circuit with her too? What if the energy just leaps through you instead? They might well blow you away because of your connection with her, and you with – er..."

Shirou glanced in the same direction, and immediately winced.

_Shinji, why'd you say that now, of all times?_

Berserker peg legs rapidly clicked as they carried her into the shed, hair all aflutter with her motion. "...Master?" Her expression looked worried.

Shirou grimaced, and glanced up at her body, preparing himself for what he'd have to say next.

"...it's fine. I just need to tolerate it for a little while if it happens. Afterwards we'll know what we did wrong."

Taiga and Shinji looked poleaxed. Then the shouts started.

"Emiya!" Shinji roared. He slapped his tools down onto the ground angrily. "What the hell are you thinking? You'll burn out your circuits, you dumbass!"

Taiga took it one step further by grasping him by the collar of his shirt. "There's a time and a place for you to be a super hero, and this isn't it!"

"Yes, but we know Berserker will definitely die if we don't do this!" He countered, finally focusing his gaze on Taiga. "I've done worse to myself every night than a little shock, believe me." He turned to look over at Shinji. "You know we walk with death every step of the way, Shinji. I tried to improve the odds of success as best I could with what we have."

Taiga bit down on her lower lip – hard.

"But..." She glanced over at Berserker shamefully, aware that she couldn't blatantly voice her thoughts out loud.

Shinji paused at that, rubbing at his temples.

"Emiya, you're insane." He bluntly stated.

Berserker looked on the verge of panicking, wanting to leave before she hurt her master.

"And we're doing it." Shirou nodded, quickly sweeping Berserker up in his arms with a smile. "No complaints, okay?"

"That isn't fair-"

"No, but no one said you'd be able to ignore my order anyway, right?" He drawled while holding the head up. "I'm the 'Master' afterall."

Berserker gaped.

"Why are you only like this at these times?" Shinji asked, sighing at his friend's stubbornness.

"I got it from Taiga-nee." Shirou bluntly replied, turning to look at Taiga. "Isn't that right?"

Taiga huffed, crossing her arms in front of her as she looked away. "...I guess." She looked back at him with a flinty stare for a few moments. "I liked it better when you always listened – you were a nice boy."

That thousand yard stare returned as she looked at Shinji.

"D-don't blame me!"

"Let's get this started!" Shirou called out, trying to get everyone from getting distracted. He moved up to Berserker's body, loosening the bolts that were holding the frame to the girl's head.

While he did that, Taiga moved towards the generator while Shinji stood by the magic circle, a small manual in hand. The two of them traded a brief, anxious look between them before letting their expressions fall into tense readiness.

Shirou pressed up Berserker's head against her body, body tensing as the clean cut between her neck started closing up. "Trace on." He whispered, clenching his eyes as he stepped back as his circuits began to feel the encroaching blaze from having to support the heroine. "Now!"

The agony sent Shirou stumbling backwards.

Taiga flipped the switch, starting on a gas guzzling roar as the engine powered to life. "Shirou!" The woman stumbled forwards, wincing as the teenager came crashing into her chest. The fall Shirou was expecting was turned into more of a slow collapse.

Shirou gurgled in her grasp. In the background, arcs of electricity surged down the lines from the generator and into Berserker's horn. The shed was lit up as the circle began to glow; Berserker's own form lit up by a cloak of electricity.

"Shirou!" Taiga hissed, almost swallowing her own tongue as Shirou desperately tried to thrash out of her grip as trails of electricity lashed out from Berserker as Shinji's voice could be heard desperately chanting in the background.

The energy wreathing Berserker briefly looked liked it was trying to force its way back through the connection to the generator, light gathering and splitting at Berserker's horn towards the connectors, but the magic circle beneath her pulsed. Chunks of the light broke away, rapidly swirling towards the ground like flower petals.

"-oh, shit!" Shinji's began to tremble as he saw the petals starting to twist out of his control, trying to avoid sinking into the ground. "Get Emiya out of the way!"

The roar of the generator's engine could be heard speeding up as the petals out of Shinji's control explosively unfurled into stray bolts of electricity, slamming into the cables thanks to the metal pegs holding them down. Several went straight for Shirou and Taiga as well, but the woman desperately hauled the squirming red head out of the way.

"Master!" Berserker cried out, trying to break free.

"Don't-!" Shinji roared, pausing again in his chanting, and causing more electricity to surge out of control. "You'll flash fry us all!"

She froze in place, eyes wide.

Taiga pulled Shirou as close to the edge of the magic circle as she could. Shinji anxiously glanced over at the generator, hiding his relief for now. Glancing over at Berserker, he could see that the Heroic Spirit was almost back at peak energy, her intangible form almost completely solid.

_Just a little more..._

Berserker bit the inside of her mouth as her eyes were only focused on Shirou.

Shirou grunted, a low moan coming out of his throat as Taiga clamped onto his hand, expression pallid as his struggles slowed down.

"...done!" Shinji rushed over and practically slapped the power button on the generator.

Simultaneously, Berserker shattered the chains that were holding her body up in the air. Coming down onto the ground on her knees, the concrete cracked, releasing a wave of electricity ten inches away from the circle's borders.

"Master!" The girl rushed towards Shirou, bangs swaying out of the way to reveal timid eyes. Sweeping down to the ground, she anxiously took Shirou's other hand as the boy opened his eyes, pained expression smoothing out.

"'m fine." He mumbled.

Taiga's anxiety gave way to joy.

Taiga let out a cry of surprise as she was pushed out of the way by Berserker. "Thank goodness!" She practically smothered the boy. "I didn't want you to become quiet forever!"

Shirou awkwardly laughed. "Y-you don't have to worry about that." He guiltily countered. "I had to make sure you survived, no matter what."

Shinji glanced away, rubbing at his shoulder awkwardly.

"That wouldn't have mattered!" Berserker squeezed Shirou. When he blinked up at her in confusion, she continued. "I could never have been happy if we couldn't talk again!"

Shirou stared at her blankly.

Something dark crossed Taiga's eyes as she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

Shinji coughed, drawing the attention of the others. "Hey, we should start cleaning up." He paused, shifting a bit in place. "If you're up to it, Emiya." A challenging smirk crossed his lips.

Feeling like he was back to more familiar ground, Shirou scoffed. Gently pushing at Berserker's arms, the girl reluctantly let him go. "Of course I'm fine."

Taiga remained silent as Shirou rose from the ground to help Shinji start cleaning up the shed. Berserker, frowning a little at having had Shirou removed from her, glanced at the older woman curiously.

"What's wrong, Miss Taiga?" She folded her hands in her lap.

"I'm not sure..." Taiga drawled, lips curling a bit downwards as she kept Shirou in her sights. The boy lightly punched Shinji on the shoulder as the two started moving the generator away. "But I think I'm going to have to find out, fast."


	5. Chapter 5

Fate/Stay Night and its spin offs are properties of Type-Moon, Nitroplus, and Image Epoch. All additional references belong to their respective companies.

Chapter 5: Trial Run

* * *

><p>A harsh alarm cut through Shinji Matou's sleep like an industrial buzz saw. The teenager groaned and rolled beneath his covers, fumbling awkwardly at the headrest of his bed. As he rolled around beneath his covers, his pajamas bottoms began to slide down his hips, swiftly causing the legs to get wrapped up in his double layered cocoon of warmth.<p>

His dexterity, numbed from sleep, caused his palm to slap halfheartedly up against the wooden grain a few times. Hissing, he pulled his right hand away as he caught his knuckle against a corner, feeling a sharp sting from dragging it against an edge. A few more fumbles with his left hand as he persistently kept his eyes closed were met with one failure after another.

"Shut up!" Shinji snapped, opening his eyes as his slack expression gave way to anger as he twisted from flat on his back to his stomach to the bed. Instantly spotting his electronic clock, he descended on the snooze button with hateful swipes. "Goddamnit!"

The boy stopped on his fourth hit, huffing angrily as a flush of embarrassment crossed his cheeks. Taking a moment to compose himself, Shinji slowly reached to the side of the clock and switched off the alarm manually.

4:30 A.M.

Shinji lip curled down in displeasure as he remembered the reason he had set it to such an ungodly hour. The boy shook his legs a few times to free himself from his covers. Once his bottoms were loosened from the tangle of covers, he smoothly hopped off his bed.

'You owe me for this, Emiya.' The magus thought, stretching his arms as he warmed up for the day.

But the success they had had last night still brought a smile to his lips.

* * *

><p>Shinji scratched at his belly lazily as he reached the first floor, dressed in some of his oldest set of pants and a worn out long sleeved shirt beneath a sweater. While the chill downstairs was worse thanks to his grandfather's miserly ways, it also served as a good way of knocking out the last traces of sleep from his system.<p>

"I wish he'd at least spring for central heating." He bitched, harshly sighing as he began to head for the exit.

"...ah!"

Blinking, Shinji spun in the direction of the kitchen. Delicious smells wafted to his nose as the sounds of utensils scrapping pots and pans could faintly be heard. Curious as what could possibly be the meaning of all this, the teenager stepped towards the kitchen.

'A faint light is beneath the door, so someone is in there.' Shinji thought, stunned at the notion. Hurriedly, his mind tried to cast forth for the date. Was it his birthday? He did tell Sakura that he had aced that exam last week, but this was going too far.

Plus Sakura's food kind of was crap.

Shinji took a sniff.

This...this was glorious.

His mouth salivated. Did Sakura learn via osmosis? Could his little sister be part sponge? Had making her eat Emiya's food made her this good?

Perhaps there was merit to his idea of selling her off to the lunatic.

Emiya owned a nice house. If he killed himself doing the same shit he had tried last night he could live off the house rent free while being fed by his sister. What a wonderful life!

With his mood lightened by the notion that he could eat some warm breakfast, he took a step forwards.

"...ah!"

And froze, glancing over his shoulder. Standing there in her pajamas, and looking oddly aware for what hour it was, was Sakura Matou. The girl's expression looked oddly guilty.

"What are you doing awake?" Shinji wondered, blurting out the first thing he could think of. She usually slept in late. He had to practically throw her out of bed to get her ready for class.

"I'm-"

"And what are you doing awake so early, Shinji?"

The creaky voice froze Shinji's blood. With ice in his veins, he nervously turned to look at who had called him out.

"Gah!"

He almost died on the spot. Shinji could literally feel his soul attempting to bash its way free through his skull as he stared at his grandfather, Zouken Matou, standing at the threshold of the kitchen. The old man's slightly stooped figure cast a shadow over his morning as he stood before the two siblings.

'He's holding onto a wick.' Shinji's brain informed the sputtering teenager. 'He has an apron! The apron I bought Sakura!'

The boy stared at his grandfather. The man didn't change in front of his eyes. He remained unchanged, dressed in his customary outfit he wore at home.

Except he now had a white bunny print apron over it.

'And a wick.'

Shinji gurgled.

"Hmph." Zouken looked at the two children somewhat contemptuously. "You're both up at a decent hour for once." He rumbled. "Wash up, I'll feed you both in honor of being productive for once in your miserable lives."

Shinji snapped out of it, "Yes, grandfather!" He bowed low before rapidly falling back.

Sakura herself timidly grasped her left arm before nodding once and walking away.

Zouken widely grinned.

* * *

><p>The sound of silverware clicking against plates was all that could be heard in the Matou dinning room. An incredibly strained air had settled on the three members of the household.<p>

Shinji coughed, and when he felt the gazes of the others on him, he quickly reached for his drink.

"Not to your liking?" Zouken pitched his tone a little higher, crooning the words mockingly.

Shinji curled his toes within his shoes. "It's great." He hesitantly replied, offering him a smile. Zouken immediately glanced away, dismissive of the gesture. Shinji's other foot curled on itself as he tried to forcibly keep his expression placid.

Yet despite his fear, Shinji had to admit this was the best food he had ever had! What sort of world was this that the old man could make something that burst in his mouth with such rich flavor?

Somehow knowing that even his grandfather had his hobbies almost made the next few minutes of silence bearable.

"I'm leaving again later. I've taken care of my business for now." Zouken announced, glancing at the two sharply. "You're both old enough now that I'm not going to have the maid service be here as often as they were before. But they will inform me of everything you two do."

Amazed at the proclamation, Shinji stopped eating. "You can trust us, grandfather!" Then he noticed that Sakura had stopped eating a while ago. While Shinji's plate was mostly cleared now, she still had more than half her food.

"Good." Zouken idly rolled his own silverware in his hand. Catching Shinji's gaze, he glanced in Sakura's direction. "Sakura, is something wrong with the food?" He sharply questioned. Unlike the pretense with Shinji, his tone was cold with her.

Shinji winced.

"N-no..." Sakura stammered, most definitely pissing Zouken off even more, in Shinji's expert opinion. In the Matou household, you either stated your words or you just shut up. The trembling in her voice was just inviting the elder to attack.

And he did.

"Does the food disgust you, perhaps? Perhaps I could fetch some old dog food Byakuya left behind in the supply closet?"

Shinji gripped his utensil. While he was getting rather fed up with Sakura's overall tone this morning, he thought this was going too far.

"Grandfather," The older of the two teenagers tentatively broke the tense atmosphere. "Perhaps I can take care of that for h-"

What Zouken had made was already pretty magnificent.

Sakura gasped, standing up fast enough to rattle the table. Shinji stared at her in dumbfounded silence.

"No!" She paused, glancing at Shinji guiltily.

Shinji's vision briefly went red. Was she mocking him? Pretending she didn't want the food just to make fun of him for trying to help her out? That only made the boy grow even angrier as he took a forceful bite of his own breakfast. With the wonderful taste of the breakfast ruined, he refused to look at his bratty sister.

* * *

><p>Sakura forced down the moan of pain with well practiced ease. Seeing that Shinji was refusing to acknowledge her for the rest of the meal, it was sickeningly easy for Sakura to mask her expressions as she was forced to eat her entire breakfast for once. The sheen of poison on the plate Zouken had served her food on glistened before her eyes.<p>

Her belly began its telltale contractions as the venom that had tainted her food set itself to work.

Zouken had a darkly amused look as he nodded at her, acknowledging her having finished her portion. The moment that the man had given her the signal, she desperately reached for her glass and began to wash down her meal with water. Her loud gulps drew a look of disgust from her brother, but Sakura was desperate to prevent this occasion's mixture - a numbing agent, if she was guessing correctly, from remaining in her throat too long.

She had already gone once with minimal air, throat numbed to the point that only desperate breaths and the worms' grace had kept her alive.

"You don't have to go so far in the other direction." Shinji complained.

Her brother's response made Sakura flinch in despair, but she didn't respond. Seeing a familiar look of subtle pleasure on Zouken's face, Sakura wondered what her body was going to be in for today. The creatures within the depths of her body began to stir.

"Excuse me!" She blurted, hopping to her feet. She desperately glanced at her grandfather for leniency.

"And where do you think you're going?" Zouken idly wondered, "You still have to clean up the dishes. I won't do that much for you, and you've also made a spectacle of this wonderful meal we were enjoying."

And, of course, received none.

"Now make sure they're spotless." He grinned. "Then you can go back to bed."

"Y-yes, sir."

Sakura kept a stiff expression of placidity on her face as she turned and marched into the kitchen. The beasts within her body began to thrash, causing her to instinctively bite down on her inner lip hard enough to draw blood, but she went to do her errands before she could lie down and rest her mind during her latest attack.

* * *

><p>Zouken and Shinji looked at the glum faced girl as she headed into the kitchen.<p>

"Ah, I'm far too lenient." The old man idly mused. "Now then, I have to go speak to the maid services." He briefly glanced at Shinji for a split second before he wobbled out of the dining room.

Shinji waited until Zouken's footsteps were gone before he let out a sigh of exhaustion.

"Damn, what a morning." Not wanting to bring down the wrath of his grandfather, Shinji grabbed his stuff and headed out. Maybe this would teach Sakura to not act so petulant during the rare times their grandfather actually gave a damn about them.

But considering how the trend went? That brat would most likely just keep at her ridiculous antics. Seriously, one of these days he'd actually try a bite of food off that girl's plate just to spite her. Even if it made his grandfather mad.

The streets were profoundly empty that morning, giving the pensive teenager a nice mirror of his mood as he walked down the sidewalks. Several darkened houses passed by with the teenager only giving them a token glance as he occasionally looked up from the fascinating webbing of cracks along the payment.

"Damn, what a weird morning." Shinji finally pronounced, deciding to air out his grievances as he arrived in front of the brightly lit Emiya home. With the faint sounds of loud shouting within, muffled by what he now knew was a magical field, Shinji only began to relax when he reached the front door of the house and unlocked it with his own key.

"Shinji!" Shirou shouted at Shinji as he entered the living room, trying to simultaneously push a clingy Berserker away from him. "Glad to see you!"

"Hi!" Berserker beamed at him, one hand on Shirou's left shoulder as the other moved away her long locks of hair to expose a twinkling eye. "Thank you for coming to help us clean, Shin! Just go ahead and start without us! Master and I need to make up for lost snuggles~"

Taiga, attempting to furiously read through several stacks of papers, flashed him a thumbs up.

Parts of the backyard still had heavy amounts of grounding cable all over, along with chunks of missing grass - burnt up from the amount of energy Berserker had forced out of the summoning circle the other night.

Only once he was in the house he was beginning to associate with madness did the boy's dark mood finally evaporate.

And man, how sad was that?

* * *

><p>"Why am I doing manual labor? The help- no, you should be doing this!"<p>

"So you're saying I'm just 'help'?"

In the distance, Shirou and Shinji were arguing as they squatted over a large patch of burnt grass. At there sides were large sacks of seed. The older of the two females in the Emiya house calmly watched the two, gaze like a hawk from where she sat at the dinning room table.

Seated on the other side of the table was an anxious looking Berserker.

"Are you sure I shouldn't help them?" She wondered yet again. The girl wrung her hands as she looked up at the cool adult. "He could clip his nail and then get gangrene and then mold can spring up all over him and..."

Taiga set down her tea cup.

"You already helped them, honey." She smiled at the girl. Taiga gestured at the coiled up cables that were resting out in the middle of the yard. "You had to haul those heavy coils out of the earth and then wrap them up for them."

"But..."

"It isn't your fault that they didn't figure out that circle well enough." Taiga frowned at the patches of burnt grass outside. "They set the yard on fire and now they gotta clean it up." She authoritatively declared.

"Mou..."

Taiga decided to take another tactic when she saw Berserker's pouty look. Just as the girl was beginning to slouch her entire body in on itself, she pulled out a bright yellow writing pad and a spare set of colored markers. From the sudden look of interest as Berserker focused on the brightly capped markers, Taiga knew she had hit pay dirt.

"How about you make a list?"

"List?"

Taiga nodded as Berserker slowly reached towards the pen. "Yeah! You said you wanted to help, right?" She waited until the Berserker timidly took the markers from her before she continued. "Well, we have something called a 'chores list'."

Well, it was more like Shirou had one. Taiga just lingered and watched the boy.

"What's that?" Berserker asked, slightly breathless as she rolled the markers with her bare fingers.

"It's a list of everything you want to do now that you have a body! You write everything down and then we can see what you can do in the house from now on." Taiga brightly smiled, clapping her hands a bit. This would get Berserker to calm down long enough for her to finish this last assignment.

Berserker perked up. "Okay!" She chirped, and only hesitating long enough for Taiga to show her how to take off the caps, she quickly began to scribble on the paper.

Precious silence descended.

A few minutes later.

"No, not that. That's out until marriage!"

"Aww."

* * *

><p>The furious squeaking of markers greeted Shirou and Shinji as they entered the living room. Taiga, looking pleased with herself, was packing away the last of her books into a backpack at her side. Berserker was lying directly in front of the television, glancing between the television in front of her and the writing pad in front of her. She'd look at the TV for a few moments before quickly scribbling something on the pad.<p>

"Ah, welcome back!" Taiga sung, making both boys grumble in response. "How did some honest labor suit you magnificent wizards?"

Shinji merely snorted, reaching over and grabbing Taiga's glass. Ignoring her cry of dismay, he spitefully gulped back her drink. With a raspberry thrown in for good measure, he darted backwards from her lazy swing.

"D-don't put it that way, Fuji-nee." Shirou stammered, squirming as she flashed him a grin. "And what are you doing, Berserker?"

"Ah! Master!" Berserker rolled onto her side before sitting upwards. With a proud smile, she showed him her notepad. Both Shinji and Shirou exchanged baffled looks as they looked at a tangled mass of colored lines. Berserker's smile dimmed a little bit before she continued. "Don't you like my drawings?" She prodded.

"Oh! Is that what those chicken scrat-!" Shinji's concise statement of the truth was interrupted by Taiga's thrown sitting pillow.

Berserker's lip trembled.

"Of course I like those-!" Shirou smoothly stepped in front of Shinji, even as the latter focused his ire at Taiga. The boy glanced over at Taiga for confirmation. On receiving a subtle nod, he concluded. "Drawings!"

Berserker smiled. She happily patted the ground next to her, making the ground beneath all of them tremble a bit ominously. "Tiger-lady told me I should make a chores list!" She proudly stated, pulling down Shirou to sit next to her when the tired boy didn't move fast enough for her liking.

She happily flipped the pages on her pad, showing her increasingly crude looking drawings. A few of them looked like bunnies. Or was that supposed to be him? It looked like his white shirt and colored sleeve outfit.

"A chore list...?" Shirou briefly flashed an annoyed glare at Taiga. Was she trying to foist things off on other people again?

"Yes! We're going to go out and look at the wolverines." The list was already sounding dangerous to the young man. "Then we should go walking up to the mountain!" That sounded safer. "Papa used to climb up these large mountains then play games!"

Shinji, intrigued in spite of everything he had learned, cleared his throat. "What kind of games?"

"Catch!" She smiled.

"How can you...?" Taiga began, but her eyes widened a bit in realization.

"Papa liked to make big rocks come down on me!" Berserker clapped. "He got so happy he would shout my name down at me so we could keep playing." She cupped her hands around her mouth, pitching her voice low. "Let's see how you can handle this, Monster!"

The humans exchanged awkward glances.

Berserker merely sighed in remembered happiness.

"Ah!" Berserker snapped out of her reverie, subtly flushing a rosy pink. "Of course, Berserker will have to teach the game to Shirou like papa taught her." She gripped her bicep with her arm. "But we'll have Master catching boulders in no time!"

Shirou broke out in nervous sweat.

* * *

><p>It was already close to nine in the morning when Taiga dropped her bomb.<p>

"You two are going back to school."

Both boys, who had been looking intensely over a set of notes on the summoning circle, glanced up in alarm.

"What?"

"No way!" Shinji's complaint was the whiniest. "We've been up since four doing scut work!"

Berserker's response was the loudest.

"No!" She screamed, making the three humans wince as her voice briefly modulated towards the more weaponized end of complaining. "Ber-Berserker just got a body! Don't take away Master now, Tiger-lady!" She threw herself over Shirou, causing him to yelp as she tried to wrap herself around the squirming boy.

She angrily waved her writing pad at Taiga, who was still rubbing her ears from the earlier scream.

"You told Berserker to write-"

"Chicken scratch."

"-shut up Shin!" She aborted her statement long enough to glare over at an equally displeased Shinji before turning back towards Taiga. "To write a 'chores list'! Berserker and Master have to do the chores list. You promi-"

Taiga anxiously waved her hands. "Wait, wait!" She begged.

But Berserker was throwing her head back and forth, sending her locks of hair flying from side to side as she stared at her with betrayed eyes. "And Master has things to do with Berserker!" She paused and surrendered. "Not the things on page one - because they are only for marriage - but things!"

Having been successfully outmatched in speed of babbling, Taiga turned to her final tactic.

"Shirooooooooooou!" She whined, stamping her foot. "Berserker won't let me send you to school!" The older woman threw her arms down in a tantrum. "Tell her to stop!"

Shinji choked, staring in awe at how quickly the adult had given up.

"Master!" Seeing her moment of salvation, Berserker happily turned towards Shirou and offered him the brightest smile she had. "If you stay we can start practicing for the boulders!" She incentivized the teenager beneath her. "The refrigerator said he wouldn't mind!"

Shirou had his answer.

* * *

><p>"Stupid Master!" Berserker wailed, kneeling down in the center of her summoning circle. Energy rose from the ground below, arresting the energy she had been losing with her actions up until now. Within another circle of the large circle, the remaining generator they had left stood ready in case Berserker had to connect to it directly for a total recharge.<p>

With the modifications in place, the circle was large enough to completely take up the entire bottom floor of the shed. Everything that had been taking up floor space was now either up on the second floor of the shed, outside; waiting for the next week's trash and recyclables run, or had been sold off to try and pay back the amount of credit card debt that Taiga had accrued on her credit card to keep her alive.

Moments later, the stupid Master in question entered the shed. The girl glanced at the boy for a brief moment, but immediately threw herself on the ground and rolled so her back was facing him. Looking appropriately chastised, the boy finished pushing a wheeled cart with a small antenna styled television into the shed.

"Sorry Berserker." He apologized, wincing as the girl merely thrashed in place a bit. "Fuji-nee is right, though. Shinji and I have been missing too much school lately."

"So?" She squirmed in place more.

Thinking fast, Shirou tried the best thing that he could think of to soothe her temper.

"I brought out the old television so you won't get bored?" It wasn't a very good attempt.

Berserker huffed, miserably pulling her hair so she didn't roll on top of it. Exposing her bared back to her Master, she sadly played with the silky tip of her hair, unaware of how her white dress shone in the glum of the shed.

"So...?" Berserker muttered. "The television is sad you have to leave too." She sulkily insisted.

Shirou tore away his gaze from the low back on her dress.

"Uhm...actually, what do you mean by that?" He wondered, curious despite himself. "Didn't you mention something about the fridge inside the house too?"

Berserker, seeing her opportunity, slyly rolled around to face him, pulling her dress tight against her body. Unaware of how the action looked, she placed her hands beneath her chin as she looked up at him with a tempestuous gaze.

"Ah, Master should stay..." She baited, part of her lips rising up in a quirky smile. "Berserker would tell you all about it," she drawled, placing special emphasis on the last word.

Shirou gulped, hand twitching as he accidentally pulled on the antenna a bit too hard, throwing it out of alignment.

Berserker's gaze moved towards the television briefly. "'Kyaah, not so rough, Master!'" She intoned, oddly focused.

Shirou blushed.

"See? Berserker knows lots of things." Berserker continued her earlier pitch, voice low as she slithered a bit further towards Shirou. "And she. Can. Share. Them. All." She brought her hands before her hopefully.

"...EMIYA!" Not caring to read the mood at all, Shinji Matou arrived in the scene. "Let's go! That Fujimura woman is going to be a pain if you take too long!" The boy grabbed his wrist and began to haul the boy away.

"Wait! I still need to-!" Shirou stammered, flushed and disoriented.

"Aah!" Berserker squeaked, hopping to her knees. "Master! Noooo!" She moaned, reaching towards the boy even as he was dragged away.

But it was too late.

School had taken him from her.

"Waah! Shin, you lousy little monkey!" Berserker, aware that she couldn't break the circle, did the only other thing she could at the moment.

She cried.

"Get your own Master!" The construct sat up and hugged her knees, rocking back and forth in place. The television set, having adjusted its antenna while Berserker miserably nursed her woes, began to display an image of a tissue box.

"Stupid seaweed! Stupid Tiger-lady!"

* * *

><p>Shinji and Shirou both awkwardly shuffled into their home room class. While it was fortunate that lunch hadn't passed yet, meaning they could still catch the science class for the day, the two were bombarded with sharp, inquisitive looks.<p>

"Ah, and the prodigal sons have returned at last."

But they'd have to deal with the worst of the lot first. Moving up to them in a curtain of dark hair, their class representative gazed at the two of them with razor sharp glares. If the other students' looks were like needles, the class representative in front of them was trying to gut them with an ax.

"H-hello, Sajyou-kun." Shirou shakily offered, trying to offer a smile.

Shinji forewent honor and merely moved behind his suicidal friend.

The blue eyed girl flashed an angry look at Shinji, but it turned into a sad smile when she looked at Shirou. "Has Matou-kun corrupted you so much, Emiya-kun?" She plaintively wondered, making the red haired boy feel worse by the second.

"Hey! Those were legitimate medical excuses!" Shinji, feeling protective, briefly glanced around Shirou's shoulder to glance at their class representative angrily.

The girl looked less than impressed.

"Why didn't I get permission to deliver your hand outs, then?" She shamelessly pried. Seeing the two were refusing to answer, she tried a different tactic. "You made my older sister very sad because of your absence, Emiya-kun!"

Shinji flashed an angry look as he could see Shirou begin to waffle.

"What he does with his time isn't the student council president's business!" He snapped, drawing a strangely hungry look from the girl. "A-and what's with that look?"

"My, aren't you two practically bursting with youthful bonds." Sajyou sung out. "Maybe I shouldn't pick at this forbidden relationship anymore?"

Shirou quirked his head in confusion.

Moments before he was shoved aside by Shinji. His face was bright red as he shook his fist at the smug looking girl.

"What are you talking about, idiot? Don't you dare deliberately misunderstand things!" He warned with a snarling tone of voice.

"I'm not saying anything~"

"Well you're damn well singing it!"

With a sigh of annoyance, Shirou walked away from the arguing pair. He smiled and politely returned greetings from his classmates as he sat at his desk. One of his neighbors cleared his throat when Shirou began to pull out his books.

"Hey Emiya-kun, you know that I still owe you lots, right?" He wondered. Seeing Shirou nod at him in confusion, he continued. "I can lend you my old print outs from this last week." The boy sheepishly smiled. "They aren't exactly high mark material though."

Shirou chewed on his lip. Grinding his teeth against it, he slowly nodded. "Are you sure that's alright?" He wondered.

"It's fine. What do you need?"

"Everything except the science notes."

The boy snorted. "Of course, let me guess, did you keep up on that?" He rhetorically nodded. On seeing Shirou's cheerful smile, he snorted in amusement.

"Sure thing, man."

* * *

><p>Life was unending woe.<p>

Berserker sightlessly stared up at the television, which was displaying a werewolf angrily tearing out the throat of a screaming man.

"That's not how you fight off werewolves, stupid." She sulked, resting her head against her arms like a cushion. "You have to twist and then pull the skull and spine out." She boredly yawned, lightly kicked her legs up and down, their metal tips musically slamming into the ground beneath her.

The television clicked.

"What do you mean by that?" Berserker frowned.

It clicked again.

"Lies! I would never lie, cross my core and hope to rust!" She held up a solemn hand. "Papa never raised a liar!"

The channel switched over to a soap opera as the television gave up on the argument.

Berserker, having lost her the bit of entertainment, forlornly slumped back onto the ground. The sight of the generator was tempting, if only because the rush of electricity made her feel good, but she swore to be a good girl and not jack herself in without Master around.

The television clicked once more time.

"Kyaaah! Don't say such dirty things!" Berserker squealed in delighted outrage. She shook her head from side to side, holding her cheeks in her hands. "You pervert! You fiend!" She giggled throughout her spiel, joined by the rapid clicking of the television.

The television's sound, having been muted all along, suddenly boomed to life.

A male character suddenly embraced a female character.

"You've...come back... to me!" His voice melodically stressed the syllables, sometimes dragging or smashing them together. His dialogue, which included a mention of how he was so glad that the female character had forgiven his evil twin, in reality an amnesiac second cousin five times removed, from his attempts at setting a puppy mil on fire.

"Noraaaa!"

The woman opposite the male character remained silent, moving deeper into his embrace.

"Oooh." Berserker was instantly enraptured.

* * *

><p>"Noraaaaaaaa!" The male character wept, grasping at the female character. Somewhere along the way, her face had melted off, revealing a gleaming metallic skeleton with glaring red eyes. "Why...? Forwhy have you dooooone this? The puppy mill couldhave been fuuuunded another waaaay!"<p>

The female character placed her hands on the weeping man's cheeks.

"Designated lover. Beep. I have given up my humanity to ensure that our children." Here, the female character placed her hand on her swollen belly. "Beep. Continue to be well provided for once I am repossessed by Armstech after I deliver them."

She paused.

"Beep."

The man continued to weep for a full two minutes, snot and tears running down his face. The former female human, now turned cyborg character, continued to beep at him consolingly as romantic music played in the background.

Berserker was anxiously chewing on her own arm, eyes wide and leaning as far as she could while still being within the summoning circle.

"Designated lover. Beep. You should have already heard this before." The cyborg paused. "If you love somebody, let them go..." She began.

The weeping man stopped crying on a dime. With his face having mysteriously dried itself within a split second, he concluded. "If they return..." He softly smiled at her, hair gaining a wind swept look as he clutched at her hand.

"They were always yours." Berserker softly whispered along with the couple on screen.

* * *

><p>Sakura Matou was feeling terrible.<p>

It was bad enough that she had skipped another day of class to observe the Emiya residence, but the girl's body had been periodically feeling spasms of pain. The crest worms within her body thrashed and squirmed within her as they sought to break down the poison that Zouken had exposed her to.

Her stomach hungrily rumbled.

"...I wish big brother had left some food behind." She mumbled, leaning up against the back of the couch she was tiredly leaning against. The house that the girl had forcibly hypnotized her way into directly faced the Emiya residence. Once again, the girl marveled how powerful the heir to the Emiya family must be to hide everything from his neighbors.

"Truly, a magnificent magus." She began, but a red and white blur shot up over the fence and came slamming down on the street loudly enough to cause car alarms a block away to begin to shriek and wail.

Sakura blankly stared as a golden horned woman sheepishly glanced from side to side. On her back, secured by thick cables, was a sizable generator.

"Or maybe he's just a lucky idiot?" She dully wondered.

And why was everything going dark...?

Oh, right.

Shock.

The coast was clear!

Her motives were clear!

With a reassuring whisper from the generator on her back, Berserker went intangible and began to rush towards the direction she could feel her Master's magical signature from. She'd go save Shirou from the tyranny of school just like what's his face saved Nora from being scrapped by Armstech!

For honor!

For love!

For SCIENCE!

But mostly for love!

"If you love someone, let them go." Berserker sang beneath her breath. With a gleaming smile, she leapt high into the air as she remembered the night she had met and reunited with Shirou. "If they return, they were always yours."


	6. Chapter 6

Fate/Stay Night and its spin offs are properties of Type-Moon, Nitroplus, and Image Epoch. All additional references belong to their respective companies.

Chapter 6: Trial Run II

* * *

><p>As the lunch bell rang, signaling the end of their break, the argument between Sajyou and Shinji settled down.<p>

"I'll see you later, Emiya-kun." Sajyou sweetly told Shirou. With one last snort at Shinji, she turned and headed to her desk to perform her class representative duties.

"Yeah, you better run!" With that parting shot, Shinji turned to take his own seat one row down from Shirou. "Emiya! I defended you, so you better freaking lend me your notes when you're done." With that, he slumped onto his desk and began to stare boredly towards the front of the class.

Shirou distractedly grunted, already hard at work. The fresh breeze at his window seat kept him cool even under pressure.

"Everyone! Stand, bow, sit!"

* * *

><p>Shirou was furiously scribbling in his note book, trying to copy the notes that he had been lent in between intense glances up at the front of the classroom. Their teacher was casually walking amongst the first row of tables, making the students pay attention as he moved amidst their number. Resting on the teacher's table at the front of the room was a strange looking device.<p>

Twin makeshift coils rose from the table. Each consisted of copper wiring twisted tightly around the individual towers that connected to thicker copper coils that buzzed with electromagnetic energy. At the end of each coil hung a loose wire that held a dull glow from the voltage of the two towers, transmitting electrons through the air between the towers.

"Nikola Tesla is famous for having developed the modern alternating current electrical supply system." Professor Ono gestured at the device that he had brought in with him today. "To wrap up this week, I wanted to spice things up by showing you a working model of one of Tesla's works."

Shirou's pencil froze in mid scratch.

"These may not look like much." Ono said bemusedly at the expressions of most of his students. He walked over towards the front of the room, holding up a light bulb. "But Tesla was a man ahead of his time."

He brought the light bulb closer to one of the towers.

To the surprise of the formerly passive looking students, the light bulb began to glow when he brought it near the coils. Shinji, who had been exchanging glances with a girl on the end of his table, joined Shirou in staring at the light.

"The man was a proponent of 'wireless energy transfer'." Their teacher triumphantly finished, smiling at having caught the kids' attention before school ended for the week. Before the teacher could continue, he was interrupted by the loud sound of wood scraping as Shirou leapt to his feet. The teacher and other students stared at the boy in stunned silence.

"Eureka!" He boomed with a grin, holding a finger in the air.

The class broke out into laughter.

Shinji, who had been a split second too slow to beat Shirou, settled back on his seat with a grumble.

"Yes, I suppose Tesla probably shouted that too." Ono couldn't help but chuckle at Shirou's enthusiasm. His eyes twinkled a little as the class representative quickly rose and began to chide at the rest of the class back into order.

* * *

><p>Shirou was moving towards their teacher even as the electronic chime for the end of class faded. Both Sajyou and Shinji gave him looks of confusion, but the latter only had to look at the instrument set up in the front of the class to understand.<p>

"Professor Ono!" Shirou exclaimed, making the teacher look over at the boy as he disassembled the Tesla Coil.

"What is it, Emiya-san?"

"I want to find out more about Tesla Coils!" The redhead exclaimed, moving around to the right as Ono went towards the left side of the table.

Appreciative that he wasn't having his heels nipped at while he disassembled the coils, the teacher gestured for Shirou to continue. "Like what, exactly?" He wondered, noticing that the boy was mimicking his actions to pack away the second coil.

"Uhm..." Shirou blinked in surprise. "Like..." The boy came up with a blank now that he had gotten a positive answer. His hands twitched in place as he struggled to think up a good question before their next teacher showed up.

Ono chuckled.

"Well, how about this- You can come to the teacher's lounge after class?" The teacher began as he stored away one of the coils. On the other side of the table, Shirou finished putting the other one away. He took both boxes before he continued. "You only have a bit of time before your next class. I don't want to bother Professor Mobu by taking too long."

Shirou nodded in agreement.

"Great, I'll be there as soon as classes end, then!"

Ono smiled at the enthusiastic answer. After taking the second box from Shirou, he paused at the exit of the classroom. "Just try not to miss so much class next time, alright Emiya-san?" He wryly smiled, causing a momentary look of ire to form on Sajyou's face as she looked up at Shirou.

"Y-yes." He stammered.

Ono nodded and left.

"Emiya-kun, I need to talk to you!" demanded Sajyou. Shirou's stomach dropped as the class representative walked up to him. A glance over at Shinji showed the boy gaily laughing as he spoke with a girl sitting at his table.

He had been betrayed.

Shirou wondered if he'd live long enough to brand Shinji with a Scarlet Letter before the pouty girl was up in his face. She jabbed towards him with her index finger, making the boy flinch and take a few steps back. Finding himself quickly pushed towards a corner of the room, he risked a glance away from Sajyou.

Still two minutes before the teacher came back. Damn.

"Matou-san," Here she glanced back over at Shirou's friend dismissively. "And you were gone for a while." She placed her hands at her hips, lips distending a bit as her temper flared as Shirou tried to defend himself. "I don't want to hear it." She cut him off with a snort.

Shirou clamped his mouth shut. At least it saved him some effort.

"I want you to be here." Sajyou gestured authoritatively at the ground. Shirou, for reasons he couldn't even begin to understand, glanced at the ground before looking back at the blue eyed girl. She approvingly nodded at him. Her expression softened from the sharp one she had been wielding during her entire lecture. "Good, you're too much of a soft touch, Shirou. Matou would just roll over you and keep going if you didn't keep up with him."

"But..."

The door slid open at that moment, and the girl spun, leaving him staring at her back as she walked back to her desk. Shirou jolted and made his way back to his desk when he noticed that everyone was looking at him from their own desks in confusion.

Back at her own seat, Sajyou let out a shaky sigh of relief after Shirou took his seat with an appropriately pacified expression. With the arrival of the teacher, she felt her frayed nerves still as she went back on relying on her old habits.

"Stand! Bow! Sit!"

* * *

><p>"Is this where Master is spending his days?" wondered Berserker. Her nose crinkled in slight disappointment as she looked over the three story building in front of her.<p>

Unnoticed by her, a guard in his early twenties jolted out of a light nap he was taking at his seat. He glanced around his station in mild alarm, but calmed down when he saw no one. The man shrugged and tried to settle back down.

The large generator strapped to Berserker's back puttered.

Having heard the extra noise, the guard nearly fell off his chair. His eyes were wide as he looked around the clearing, but the puttering wouldn't stop. The guard quickly rushed over towards Berserker and the generator, tracking the noise down to where they stood.

Both the heroic spirit and her friend ignored the man, even as he wildly swiped at them with his hand.

"Oooh, so you think he's here to get built?" The long haired girl thoughtfully responded, bringing up a finger to her lips. The guard's fist flew through her head, but she didn't care to dissuade him as she tapped the tip of her tongue against her fingers. "No, I don't think people need to go to an assembly line."

"Demons!" The guard threw himself away from Berserker, expression pale as he rushed back to his station. Grasping at a desk drawer, he threw it open and grasped a set of prayer beads inside. Sufficiently armed, the man rose to his feet and walked out towards the direction of the voices he was hearing.

The generator shifted on her back.

"Um...no. I'm a good girl!" Berserker frowned over at the guard. "My friend things you're being rude and so am I!"

With his eyes clenched shut, the guard wildly flailed the beads at them.

The generator puttered.

"Yeah! It's best to just go ahead inside!" Berserker pumped her fist. She looked over at the guard in dismissive annoyance, but realized what he was doing. "Excuse me, I'll be heading in now~" She swallowed her annoyance as she politely bowed before racing towards the gate.

"Aaah!" The guard let out a panicked yelp, reaching up to grasp at his rimmed blue cap. Too slow to stop it from slipping, it revealed a recently shaved head that glinted palely in the sun. His dress uniform fluttered, and he let out a squeak as he instinctively held his shirt down from flipping up like a skirt would. The man went tumbling onto his rear, and resumed wildly glancing around.

His determination rewarded him as he briefly saw a flicker of a shape race past the gate's bars, outlined by a spark of electricity. Stunned stupid, the man could only focus as a tiny trail of dust was kicked up as whatever had rushed past him raced along the dirt ground towards the school's main entrance.

"...not my problem." Akira Ryuudou muttered, repeatedly rubbing his beads in a calming motion, and repeating the words over and over again until he believed them. It was his job to stop people from leaving or entering. Not pulling anyone else back if they got inside the building.

"Not my problem."

Or so he forced himself to believe.

* * *

><p>The third and final class period of the day was a pleasant surprise to Shirou and Shinji as Sajyou walked up to the head of the class. With quick, efficient strokes she wrote out two words that filled the two boys with relief.<p>

Free Study.

"Alright everyone!" The class representative's voice rose over the murmurs of happiness from the students. "You all know the deal by now, since our history teacher broke her leg in that major blackout, we all have to study until the school gets us a replacement."

Shirou winced, remembering the night Berserker had appeared.

"Hey!" Shinji held out his hand, eagerly waving it at Sajyou with a smirk on his face. "So we can go home?" His words caused a scowl to form on the class representative's face and considering looks on the others. "It's the last period, right?" His smirk turned into a full out evil grin. "Right?"

"No!" Sajyou shook her head. "You're all supposed to stay here!" She leaned forwards to the desk in the front of the room and drew out a leather bound book. "See? I've got the roster here. So don't try anything funny, Matou!"

Half hearted complaints rose from the crowd. A few of the students looked outright annoyed at Sajyou. The girl responded to those looks by waving her ledger at them in frustration.

"H-hey! I don't make the rules!"

"But you don't have to suck up to them so much!"

With Shinji at the head, the crowd was starting to turn ugly. Seeing this, Shirou loudly cleared his throat, drawing the attention of the group onto him. Since he had earned their good will earlier, Shirou decided to throw himself under the bus.

"We're not actually being forced to do anything new." Shirou reasonably explained. "There's no reason to get annoyed about having to stay here, right?" He finished his question with a sharp look over at Shinji.

"We can do anything we want, right?" One girl sharply asked Sajyou.

She eagerly nodded, glad to not be at the center of attention.

Shinji, realizing that his rebellion was falling around him, threw up his arms in surrender.

"Gimme your notes so I can copy them then, Emiya!" He demanded, to the immediate capulation from the red head. With a casual toss, the notebook flew over towards Shinji, who caught it and sank back at his table with a grumble.

The rest of the class began to fall into place after seeing their leader surrender.

Sajyou flashed Shirou a grateful look as she drew closer.

"Thank you so much! I thought they were going to rip me apart!" She exclaimed, and quickly threw her arms around him for a hug before stepping back and lightly slapping him with the ledger. "But don't think this gets you off the hook! See my sister after class, okay?"

Shirou awkwardly laughed in response.

He would've felt even more tiny if he had been aware of the girl pressing her face up against the window in the back of the class; her angry, fast breathing and the smoke rising from a generator on her back fogging the glass up. If he had, Shirou would have been quicker to stop what was going to happen next.

* * *

><p>Anger; red hot and boiling beneath the girl's placid expression, surged throughout her frame. Her smile was wooden as she pressed her body up against the window. The stone that her hands were pressing up against cracked as she applied further pressure.<p>

Berserker, stop.

Her surprise at the noise was the only reason she was able to hear the voice coming from her back.

Don't do anything you will regret, child.

Master was hers! She had been good! She had done everything right according to this world's rules! She hadn't scared him off like- like!

We must retreat. You can't endanger your Master. If you let yourself run wild, he'll get hurt.

Where was that other woman getting off, anyway?

Focus!

The fire within her surged, burning her lungs as she let out a cry of misery. Her eyes teared up as she spun and fled away from the window. It was only because of the presence of her friend's intentions that they remained unseen.

This wasn't fair! She had done everything her other self in the television had told her! She needed...! She needed him!

...if you really need him that badly, then I'll help you. Please, just follow my instructions.

Her friend's voice sounded a bit hesistant, but the sobbing girl was desperate at this point. Her silent agreement was met by a fair weaker sensation of her Master in another building. The fleeing girl raced in that direction.

* * *

><p>"So what are you going to do tomorrow?" asked Sanada, a rather rail thin boy with shaggy brown hair. The person he spoke to was Lucy - his best friend. Best girl friend. Who wasn't his girlfriend at all. "I'm going to have to go on a hike with my family by the old forest; it's such a lame idea." He snorted.<p>

She briefly considered. "I'm not sure." The frizzy haired girl casually admitted.

"Girl, that's lame. I wanted to live vicariously through you, but you're probably going to spend all day tomorrow listening to those stupid metal CDs of yours!"

"Metal is not stupid!" She barked, wishing she could free her hands of the printouts their teacher had sent them out to get so she could smack him. "Don't blame me because your parents took Father Kotomine's bullshit advice about family values seriously!"

Both teenagers' expressions grew red and their eyes locked as they began to warm themselves for yet another round of arguing, but a sharp popping noise interrupted them. They looked behind them - to see the lights on the ceiling begin to flicker randomly on and off.

"Eh, lights busted again." Sanada glanced away, losing interest. "Let's get these print outs to the history teacher. My arms are practically going to fall off here."

Lucy was paying attention to the lights long enough to see one of them flash before going out with a loud pop. Both teenagers practically leapt out of their skin as another one next to it flashed before going out.

"Let's get out of here!" Lucy shouted as the two of them began to run away. Neither cared they were rapidly losing print outs in their mad dash. The sounds of the lightbulbs exploding above them was a greater concern than losing the print outs they had.

* * *

><p>"This..."<p>

Yes.

Berserker held up her item in wonder. Behind her, a crumpled iron door barely hung onto its hinges thanks to a prayer.

"This is..."

Please don't make a scene.

"Master's clothing!" Berserker squealed, a scandalized smile on her face as she twisted to look at the generator she had set down on the ground. "You're so naughty, Gen-san!" A wide, toothy smile lit up her face as she pushed her long locks of hair away to openly look through Shirou's locker. "Ooh..and this is his...? Eee!"

Ha...

The generator rumbled as Berserker fell to the ground, rolling around in their Master's clothing. In the background, next to the remains of the locker door Berserker had torn out, was a sparkling outlet that the Heroic Spirit was drawing energy from at that very moment.

"Banzai!" Berserker cheered, throwing her Master's clothing in the air and letting them land on her. "Stupid girl can't come in here, now can she? Only Berserker can come in here!"

Forgive me, Master. The generator sincerely muttered.

"Ohoho!"

* * *

><p>"What's that smell?" asked Yomiko, one of the most recent teachers' assistants added to the school, looking up from grading a terribly written english report in front of her.<p>

How the heck was a weapon supposed to have a bane anyway?

"If you smelt it..."

"Ha-ha, really funny. You could match wits with the best of the students at this school." Yomiko sneered at the other woman. "But seriously, can't you smell it? It's like something's burning?"

Chiasa, ter senior assistant, blinked and glanced around, finally catching the smell. Her nose wrinkled in distaste as she stood from the huddle of desks the teacher assistants were given in the main room of the teacher's lounge. She looked around for a few moments before her eyes widened when she looked at the direction of the coffee maker.

Both women could see faint smoke rising from the device.

"Our coffee!" Chiasa immediately ran to try and save the machine by unplugging it. "Don't die! No! We still need you!"

Yomiko briefly considered looking at the woman like she was mad, but a glance at the pile of paperwork she still had left made her realize what the stakes were. She went pale at the thought of having to go through another middle schooler's analysis of classic literature without another cup of good coffee.

"Live, damn you! Live!" Chiasa shrieked in the background, smacking the coffee maker. "Midterms are nearly upon us!"

Yomiko hang her head in misery. Glancing at the paper she had been grading, she decided to give it a point of extra credit.

It truly was a life of loss without gain for a teacher's assistant.

* * *

><p>Throughout the school, more and more electronics began to fail as a power surge ripped through the building. Cries of dismay began to rise throughout the school's computer lab as student's computers crashed. A few even began to spit out smoke as they were struck down as all the lights in the room went off for a split second.<p>

Hey, little boy. Would you like some candy?

Jiro Yamada's computer though...

"Uh, teacher?" Jiro awkwardly called out, eyes focused on his computer. The screen in front of him began to fill with small windows, text programs loading up with different messages on them. "I think there's something wrong with my computer?"

His teacher, currently furiously batting at a computer to keep it from catching on fire as a student reached to unplug it, didn't even look at him.

"Is your computer on fire?"

"No..."

"Then I'll be with you in a moment, Yamada-san!"

You know what they say about snitches, right?

An internet explorer window popped up, showing a heavily bruised looking man being rolled away on a stretcher.

"...nevermind!" Jiro yelped in terror. He quickly stood up and ran to another part of the room. The images and programs closed themselves on the computer, returning it back to normal.

On the other side of the room.

Um...should I lick it? A boy awkwardly typed into the chat program.

Yeah, baby. He got an answer back. I feel so good. Good enough that I almost want to vomit.

A blushing middle schooler looked away from the chat program he was on, trying to find who he was lewdly cybering with in the classroom. None of his classmates were looking around, most of them either chatting with each other or quite a few of them intensely staring at their computers with varying looks of emotions.

His flushed face and heavy breathing only increased when he saw his crush intensely typing away at her computer.

Hey, don't ignore me. His computer chimed a few moments later. We were just getting to the good part, Master.

"Gah..." The boy trembled. Unable to contain himself, he stood up and ran out of the classroom. The message he left behind before escaping to the rest room was a quickly typed out apology to the person he was chatting with.

Oh...how disappointing. The chat program replied a few moments later. I thought he'd be more manly. Especially after I looked up all the pornography he sees in the history. Sigh.

A smiley emote appeared.

I'll go check on the others, then~!

With that final message, the program shut down.

* * *

><p>A flood of children were being released from the school. Their shouts of fear were only kept at bay by the stern chastisements of the adults. The flickering lights throughout the building didn't lend very much strength to their demands for the children to keep from panicking.<p>

A set of janitors, observing the procession, grimaced as they turned to face the gym. If the chaotic flickers of light in the main school were bad, then the ones in the gym were even worse.

"D-do I have to go?" Gai Watanabe asked in a trembling voice. He looked at the older janitor in the face. "T-this isn't in our job description, isn't it? Why don't we get the gate guard to do it? He was a monk at Ryuudou before!"

The balding man received an unmerciful stare from the taller and somewhat chubbier man.

"We're maintenance." He scoffed. "This isn't an exorcism. Just a blown fuse. You'll fix the gym and I'll take care of the school."

"Oi! Oi! Oi!" A dark haired boy's shouts were loud enough to briefly distract the two men back towards the children. "Why are you shoving me out, Sajyou? Emiya is still in there!"

The stern girl with him merely kept shoving him towards the gate.

"The teachers needed him to fix a coffee maker of theirs! That means you have to go home now!"

"And what about you, huh? Why aren't you going?"

The girl blushed.

"T-that isn't any of your business! I have to stick around to walk home with my sister, alright?"

"That's a damn lie!"

The two men phased out the rest of the children's conversation.

"Well, at least you know you won't be working alone." Gai's superior smirked, looking a bit embarassed despite his words. "Emiya-kun volunteered to help us out again." His expression faded. "Just go in there and we'll reset the breakers, alright?"

Despite the question, Gai knew that he wouldn't get to deny his superior.

"Yes, sir."

* * *

><p>"Fwah~" Berserker breathed in and out heavily as she rubbed her face into her Master's shirt. The girl had thrown caution to the wind as she released her invisibility, rolling around the cold ground.<p>

You're getting yourself dirty, Berserker.

Pieces of paper from a torn up magazine were tangling in Berserker's long hair. A large piece of it, sticking to the grill of the generator, proudly announced the magazine the Heroic Spirit had found had once been property of Shinji Matou.

"So?" Berserker questioned, her voice singing the word as she looked over at the generator with a dopey smile. "It's just paper from Shin's stupid, stupid book." She angrily glared at the glossy piece of paper in front of her.

A piece of a swimsuit model's smile mocked her.

Well, yes. I don't believe you should have torn it, though. The humans are going to have to clean it up.

"Hmph." Berserker sniffed after that curt response. She glanced away from the generator, lip trembling as she dropped her Master's clothes on top of her body. "Why should I care?"

This is Master's school...

Berserker curled around the clothing.

"L-let those treacherous h-humans clean up their own m-messes!" Her voice wavered as she buried her face inside the pile. "T-them and their big toes! I-I could've had big toes too, you know? But the professor said that my legs were superior to anything a loving God could have given me!"

Her metallic legs rapidly began to kick at the ground, making loud crashing noises.

Berserker, don't...

"I was given the finest bust in all of Europe! My rear end sat upon a throne, you know?" Berserker began to cry. "Why'd I get rejected for some pole bean japanese girl?"

...start this again.

"Is it because she's alive and I'm not? That's discriminatory! Dead girls deserve love too!"

Oh merciful Buddha.

"Master!" Berserker began to squirm as she cried, slamming her hands into the ground as well. "Don't leave me!" She wailed out the last words.

The generator rumbled as it observed Berserker's prana expenditure shoot up as it began to descend into a mild version of Mad Enhancement. In turn, Galvanism began to draw more power from the school to keep her levels from dipping into something that would hurt her Master.

...having a temper tantrum at your age? The generator rumbled in disbelief.

* * *

><p>Gai nervously clung at the walls as he slowly crept into the gymnasium. Flickers of raw electricity buzzed high above, lighting up the room enough to show the pieces of glass strewn around the basketball field dominating the top floor of the building.<p>

He stumbled as he suddenly felt a trembling beneath his feet.

"Eee...aaah!" The janitor's squeak of fear turned into a cry of pain as he scrapped his hand against the wall, knuckles coming back with a long scratch along the knuckles. He hissed and shook his hand to calm the throbbing as he observed the area.

Gai nervously licked his lips as he saw the shattered remains of the door heading to the locker rooms in the back of the gym. The man hopefully glanced in the direction of the exit, but the prospect of facing his boss' wrath made the janitor clutch at the broom he had brought with him for self defense.

"...I'm going to need a bigger stick."

The man forcibly looked away from the shattered door in the back of the gym as he affected an air of casual boredom. He woodenly marched himself to a beige door beneath and to the side of the bleachers on the eastern wall of the gym.

The smell of recently spilled paint greeted him as he opened the supply closet. Yellow and black paint covered large portions of the ground from tipped over cans on the top of the closet. The man briefly got over his fear of the ghosts haunting the school, angrily glancing in the direction of the shattered doors.

Gai carefully began to step past the piles of paint as he made his way for the kill switch on the side of the fuse box for the building. The man was so focused on the switch that he didn't pay attention to the floor buffer that was lying in on corner of the room. A spark of electricity raced from where it was still plugged into the wall outlet in the closet.

The janitor put on a pair of rubber gloves from his back pocket before opening the fuse box.

The switch on the floor buffer slowly descended just as the man reached for the kill switch.

A whirl of engines and a shout of surprise came within the supply closet. Moments later, a paint splattered janitor came screaming out of the closet, holding down his pants as a floor buffer chased after him, the brushes trying to grip at the bottom of his pants legs. The chase continued for a quarter of the gym, but the cord that was quickly unwinding from the back of the floor buffer was running out. With a twang and loud crack, the floor buffer bounced backwards as it ran out of slack in its cord.

It continued trying to rush after the screaming janitor, but it failed several times, bouncing back from its charges as its cord conspired against it. The device angrily buzzed as it rushed along the perimeter of its range, flashing the lights in the front of it randomly. On one of those attempts, a shadow which should have never been there was projected on the gym floor.

The sound of a generator puttering away filled the gym.

"Oh? Hello, what's this?" A girl's voice called out. "I guess you were right, Gen-san!"

The floor buffer buzzed, flashing its lights at the strange shadow.

"I'm sorry. I accidentally brought you to life." The shadow paused. "You can stick with me, though."

The living device twisted in the grips of its cord.

"Don't worry about such things." A thin bolt of electricity came lashing out from within the shadow to impact the floor buffer. "You're me and I'm you. No matter where we go, three is better than two!"

With a mighty heave, the floor buffer tore the cord free from its back, sparkling electricity everywhere as it charged towards the shadow. It's adjustable handle lowered as it eagerly buzzed at her.

"You want to give me a lift?" The shadow giggled before moving on top of the offered handle. "Why thank you kindly."

The floor buffer flashed its lights.

"Can you take me to Shirou Emiya please? I'll tell you how to get there."

With that mild request, the floor buffer charged off towards the exit of the gym.

* * *

><p>"Come in, Emiya-san!" Chiasa told Shiro, and gestured for him to approach the door she was standing next to. "I'm glad you decided to stay behind." The teacher flashed the middle schooler a grateful smile as the boy waved at her as he approached the teacher's lounge.<p>

"Don't worry about it." Shirou calmly dismissed the teacher's assistant's praise. He looked around the dim hallway. "So the lights burnt out here too? At least the light bulbs didn't break."

The hallway was dim, but the sunlight pouring into the building from the large windows in the teacher's lounge kept it from being pitch black.

"We have the maintenance staff working on fixing things." The older woman nodded, leading Shirou inside. "But well, between that and the others going out to keep the rowdier kids from coming back in..."

Shirou glanced at the woman's miserable expression before turning his head to look at what she was focusing on.

"A coffee machine?"

"Yes!" The teacher's assistant clapped her hands together. "Can't you please help us fix it, Emiya-san?"

Shirou leaned away as the woman moved closer to him. Her gaze was as sharp as a sword as it tried to pierce him through.

Strangely enough, he was feeling even more motivated than usual to answer.

"Uh, yeah, I can try to fix it, sure!"

"Great! Sajyou-san stopped by here already." Chiasa quickly rushed off behind some desks to their right. Picking up a wooden box filled with tools, she rushed back fast enough to make her heels click against the linoleum floor. "I already got some things here for you!"

The teacher's assistant thrust the box into the bemused boy's hands.

"Please help us, Emiya-san!" The woman declared with a smile. "Or we'll make the rest of the year miserable!"

Shirou awkwardly laughed as he took the box.

"Good one."

The teacher's assistant didn't join him in laughter, choosing to stare at him.

"I'll...go to work right away."

"Good boy."

* * *

><p>Taiga guiltily wore down on her bottom lip with her teeth as she looked at the front door of the Emiya home. A glance down at her wrist watch revealed she still had plenty of time before school ended for the day, but she couldn't bring herself to open the door in front of her.<p>

Why was she even here? She had already missed plenty of classes, but she went and ignored her afternoon classes today. The last thing she needed was to fail out when the teachers were looking into offering internships.

"Damn. I'm already out anyway. Too late to worry about that spot in Homuraba."

Taiga threw off the last shreds of her hesistation as she let herself into Shirou's house.

"Berserker! I'm home!" She called out to the entrance hall. She had seen Berserker practically claw her way to Shirou from the shed before at the sound of his voice. "Do you want anything to eat?" She paused as she considered her level of cooking expertise. "I can peel a banana for you?"

Having heard no response, Taiga shrugged and exchanged her shoes for house slippers.

"I'm going to clean up Shirou's room!" She called out, rubbing her neck as a queasy sensation of guilt filled her. "Call me if you need anything."

Having said her piece, Taiga began to move towards her destination.

What she was going to do was a gross violation of trust, but...

Taiga shivered as she remembered what had happened...

* * *

><p>Taiga clutched at Shirou. Spittle and foam was flying from his mouth as he twisted out of her grasp as electricity raged in the background. She had grabbed a chunk of rubber from the ground when she saw how he was gnashing his teeth, holding the piece steady to keep him from choking on it as she kept him from biting his own tongue off.<p>

"-oh, shit!" Shinji Matou's voice sounded panicked. "Get Emiya out of the way!"

Taiga instantly did as demanded. Grasping Shirou with her free hand, the woman hauled the limp boy out of the way. Moments later, a bolt of electricity slammed down on the ground where they had been resting. The large glowing pattern that Shinji was somehow using to control this nonsensical display glowed brightly as the energy was sucked down into it like water in a toilet.

A fearful glance at the centerpiece of the pattern showed Berserker wreathed in electricity as she hung above them. Streams of energy were falling off her towards the pattern on the shed's ground, more were racing away from her body down the set of grounding cables Shirou and Shinji had tied around her body before this ceremony, but it was the cloak of electricity that was most ominous.

Sensing what was going to happen, Taiga foregoed gentleness as she began to drag Shirou towards the edges of the circle. More streams of electricity lashed out, but they weren't able to travel far enough to endanger her and Shirou.

She was sick of it.

She was getting him out before he died.

"Master!" Berserker seemingly caught onto her intention, since she was trying to break free from her chains, but a shout from Shinji made her freeze in place.

"Don't! You'll flash fry us all!"

Guilt assaulted Taiga as she saw the wide panicked stare Berserker was giving her. Having observed how far the electricity really was traveling, Taiga took a gamble and stopped dragging Shirou away when they got to the edge of that 'magic circle' that was controlling the flow of energy around Berserker.

Shirou moaned in pain beneath her, making Taiga's heart feel like it was being constricted. Feeling absolutely helpless in the face of everything happening around her, she could only take up his hands as his struggles decreased. She began to fear for the boy's life as her hands pressed against his wrists, feeling the weak pulse in his hands.

"...done!"

The dangerous ritual ended with Shinji's triumphant shout as he shut off the generator. The magic circle on the shed's ground lost its intense light, plunging Taiga into darkness for a moment as she grew adjusted to the new dimness.

But most importantly, Shirou regained a flush of color to his cheek.

Her boy was going to be okay.

Taiga didn't even care when she was pushed aside by Berserker, allowing her and Shinji to celebrate with her boy. The woman's eyes began to grow wet as she clutched at her chest, feeling like she had lost a few years as she tried to keep herself from clinging to Shirou like Berserker. She smiled to herself as she saw a few discarded boxes for the models she had been bringing him sporadically throughout the years amongst the clutter. That small piece of normality was all that she needed.

With a smile, she turned to cheerfully lambast Shirou for being a helpful idiot...

"I had to make sure you survived, no matter what."

"That wouldn't have mattered!" Berserker squeezed Shirou. When he blinked up at her in confusion, she continued. "I could never have been happy if we couldn't talk again!"

Taiga's smile died when Shirou blankly stared at Berserker.

There was no emotional comprehension in those eyes at that moment.

Those weren't the eyes of her boy...

* * *

><p>Taiga stared at the empty room in front of her. Walking into the room, she attempted to dispel the illusion that she was seeing in front of her. Looking from one side to another, she once again confirmed that the only things she saw in the room were the models she had given Shirou when he was younger.<p>

The futon, rolled up in the closet, was the only thing she found when she tried one of the closet doors. The other door revealed several pressed school uniforms. She rushed over to the dresser in one side of the room and threw open the drawers.

Her heart began to rapidly beat as she saw Shirou's normal t-shirts there.

"Why...?" Taiga shakily muttered, desperately pulling out clothing to try and find something. "Why doesn't he-!"

Candy!

Bubblegum!

A deck of cards!

A pornography magazine!

She would accept any sign of normalcy!

Nothing. There wasn't anything here that a normal boy should have. There wasn't anything here.

It was only the things that she had given him that kept the room from being desolate.

Taiga's attempts at searching through the drawers grew more frantic. She was practically throwing Shirou's clothing behind her as she began to pull out drawers and dump their contents on the ground. The inexplicable feeling she had been nursing since a few nights ago was building, feeding on itself like the snake from that old story she had once read for an english class.

English...

Taiga felt like she had been socked in the gut. Feeling the strength in her legs give out, she knelt in the center of the devastation she had created in Shirou's room.

"Mister Emiya..."

Those weren't the eyes of her boy...

They had been the eyes of his father.

"No, Kiritsugu-!" She roared, glaring up at the ceiling through blurry eyes. "Tell me what happened to Shirou?"

* * *

><p>Taiga was too tired to care when she saw that Berserker was no longer in the shed. The listless search she had performed throughout the house had only confirmed what she had thought before. Why had she missed so many signs?<p>

Even when she had tried to engage him, he had only done enough to throw her off, wasn't it?

She tried to remember her past conversations with Shirou.

The only thing that stood out in her mind had been a talk she had with him shortly after Kiritsugu's funeral. Like all the other ones she had with him back then, didn't they all resolve around the same topic.

"Save the girl."

Taiga was startled as the television she had been leaning against began to play sounds again.

"If you love her, you should go up to her and do everything you can to save her."

A ringing came from her jean. Taiga ignored the program that was airing on the television as she answered the phone her grandfather had forced on her recently.

"Hello?" She answered.

"Hello, this is Central East Middle School. Would Shirou Emiya's guardian be in?"

"Uh, yes." Taiga immediately answered, glad her grandfather had given her number along with his for these purposes. "How can I help you?"

"Yes. There's been an...incident. We need you to come pick up Emiya-san right away."

"She's gone off to save the boy, you treacherous cow." The television announced. "And there's nothing you an do to stop their love."

Taiga ignored the television, switching it off as she rushed out of the shed.

"What's going on?" She demanded, slamming the door and quickly locking it as she left the Emiya home behind.

"...well, he's locked himself in the school. We need you to talk him out, please."


	7. Chapter 7

Fate/Stay Night and its spin offs are properties of Type-Moon, Nitroplus, and Image Epoch. All additional references belong to their respective companies.

Chapter 7: Evaluation - Ally of Justice

* * *

><p>Shirou sighed and wiped his brow as he tightened up the last screw on the bottom of the coffeemaker. "It's done, miss." He let the teacher's assistant know as he finished.<p>

The stout device had only its fuse blown out in the heating device; he hadn't even needed to use his magic to take care of the problem.

"Really?" She happily asked and reached for the small radio on her hip. "I'll let the maintenance staff know then."

"Yeah, was pretty simple to fix. Should run fine now."

It was a relatively small problem in comparison to the havoc that was happening in the rest of the school at the moment. Shirou wasn't sure why the teacher's assistant was looking so moved with the repair. He decided not to question it, putting away his things as the woman finished reporting the situation to the other staff via their hand held radios.

"Thank you, Emiya-san!"

"Do you want to try it before I go help out Sajyou-san?" He asked, already planning on meeting up with his class representative's older sister - the student council president herself. "The surges already stopped. It should be safe to go ahead and plug it in before I go."

While he was delaying his meeting with the president, he didn't want to leave the job undone either.

"Really?" She held up the coffeemaker's carafe. "Let's test it out, then."

Shirou carried the drip coffeemaker over towards an outlet as the teacher's assistant went and filled the carafe with water from the water cooler in the lounge. The redhead glanced out the large windows in the lounge. Outside, he could see the other students getting guided out by the staff and class representatives.

"The day was going so well too." The older woman's voice pulled him out of his reverie as she approached with the carafe. "Thank you for deciding to stay behind, Emiya-san." She smiled at him as she handed the glass bowl to him.

Shirou silently took it and placed it on the heating area of the coffeemaker.

"It's fine. We still got released earlier thanks to this. I wasn't planning on going home yet."

He wondered if Shinji was already racing back home.

No, he was probably heading back to their shed to play around with that magic circle they had set up.

The woman laughed.

"Well, I'm glad that you didn't believe in that ghost story nonsense." She glanced out at the hall as the machine began to hiss as water began to circulate through to pour down into the coffee drum.

Shirou blinked, quirking an eyebrow at her. The teacher's assistant sighed, shrugging as if she couldn't control things.

"The light bulbs outside the lounge started popping, scaring a pair of children badly enough that they were dropping their print outs."

"Huh, so that's what happened? Doesn't sound normal." Shirou observed, even as he thought something about the lights burning out like that seemed familiar.

The woman's good cheer dimmed a bit.

"Then some naughty kids were playing around when the firewalls on the computer lab went down." She looked disgruntled. "Making other people think the computers were talking to them."

"...is that possible?"

"Has to be." The teacher's asisstant insisted with a nod. "The network between them barely came back up thanks to Manaka-san's help." She gestured at her radio when Shirou blinked at her in confusion. Understanding appeared on Shirou's head as he realized that she had probably gotten a status update at the same time.

A strange look appeared on the woman as she looked at Shirou. "Don't ever become that perverted, Emiya-san."

Shirou awkwardly laughed, not sure what she meant by that.

"Well, I should go meet Sajyou-san, then." Shirou announced, figuring he could meet up with the class president as she left the computer lab. "Have a good afternoon, Satonaka-san."

"Oh, just call me Chiasa." She boredly waved him off. "Everyone does."

Shirou nodded at the woman before heading out of the room. He hadn't gone further than ten steps before he heard a cry from behind him.

"Ah! It stopped!" Chiasa's exclaimation made Shirou freeze in surprise. "No! You can't stop working now. We still have finals!"

The redhead spun around and moved back into the lounge.

"Did it break again?" Shirou asked, wondering if he'd need to use his structual analysis on it after all. "It didn't have anything else wrong with it..."

Chiasa looked up, confusion on her face.

"I'm sorry, Emiya-san. I think I spoke too soon." She lamely pointed at the machine, which was hissing and faintly emitting bubbling sounds.

"Oh." Shirou blinked. "Well, I'm off then." He turned, but he heard a gasp of surprise from behind him. To his surprise, he could hear the machine itself stop once his back was turned. He twisted back to look at the machine, but it was bubbling and hissing away now.

"...did you set this up to play red and green light?" Chiasa wondered with a pout, quirking her head downwards a little.

Shirou wasn't even sure how to dignify that with a response.

"Emiya-san." The teacher assistant's voice was deceptively calm as she reached up towards the coffee maker. "This isn't the best time for pranks." She shut the device off, facing him with a tight, dark smile. "We need our caffeine fix."

The look Chiasa shot Shirou made it feel like the rows of cubicles around them were moving in to crush him. The air felt thicker as the boy resisted the urge to rub at the back of his neck. To do so was to admit guilt.

He still had too many things to do before he died.

The strange tableaux was shattered as the coffeemaker emitted a shrill whistle. Startled, Shirou swept an arm to pull the older woman behind him as he stepped in between her and the machine. The machine's button loudly clicked as the machine began to tremble.

"What's going on?" Chiasa demanded.

A faint crack of electricity covered the machine as the machine let out a short steam whistle, high pitch and intense enough that Shirou instinctively pulled the woman and himself down as the coffeemaker fell to its side. The top of the coffee drum fell off the machine, spilling water towards the two of them.

Chiasa let out a shriek of surprise as the water drenched the radio and her side.

"Are you alright?" Shirou urgently glanced at the assistant's arm. He breathed out a sigh of relief when he only saw her skin had only grown slightly pinkish.

"Y-yeah, I was just surprised..." The woman shakily started, but the small yellow handset at her hip interrupted in a sqwack of white noise. "Ugh, one second."

Chiasa held up a hand to halt Shirou's examination as she reached for the device. She internally winced as she received a mild shock to her fingers when she touched the radio to turn up the volume and adjust the signal.

"Chiasa-san, we need you by the front entrance." The principal's voice sounded oddly stiff from the radio. "Please leave the young Master with the radio, though. We've decided we require more aid from him."

Shirou blinked, sharing the look of surprise Chiasa had. Both of them rose to their feet.

"Right away, sir." She glumly replied. The woman looked over at Shirou hopefully. "Do you think you can come back and fix this when you're done?"

"Of course." Shirou nodded, looking over at the coffeemaker. "Why don't you go ahead? I'll clean up and disconnect the thing." He pulled out a set of rubber gloves from the box.

"Thank you very much! I'll get this down at my desk, then."

Chiasa set down the radio in between piles of paperwork. To Shirou's amusement, it was the cubicle closest to the coffeemaker. Even as the woman left the office, Shirou went to shut off the machine first. He'd just grab a nearby garbage can and get some napkins to try and clean up afterward.

He had just reached for the plug when the radio suddenly sqwacked back to life.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, young Master." The new voice from the radio advised. The feminine voice was servile but had an undercurrent of steel within it. "She just wanted your attention, and you kept ignoring her. Why, even I'd get slightly peeved if I was left behind with a stranger. She just had to do that because she can't directly communicate."

"What?" Shirou blankly asked, spinning to see if there was anyone else in the room. "Who is it...?"

The knob on the small radio shifted before his stunned eyes.

"Why, it's your faithful servant, Berserker." The tone of the voice was a match for the girl. "My good chum." She tagged on the end.

* * *

><p>Manaka Sajyou sighed, eyes aching as she stared at the screen in front of her. She took off her thin framed glasses and rubbed at her eyes. "You just refuse to work, huh?" She asked the screen in front of her. The errors piling up on the screen refused to go away no matter what command prompts she gave it.<p>

She had been called in when students had been caught chatting when the firewall first fell down. From her examination, it seemed that some sort of virus had infected all the computers. All of them had the same oddly named program installed on them up until when they crashed.

The blonde pushed away from the computer, her wheeled chair squeaking as it slid along the floor. The empty computer lab around her was silent after the teachers had gotten everyone out, and it was up to the blonde to try and bring some order to the computer network that had cut off when the electricity grid went wild.

She smiled as she thought about what her friend must be going through dealing with the teacher's and their coffee machine. Deciding she needed a break, and so she could see how he was doing, the student body president rose. The girl winced as she heard a pop from her back.

"I need to work out more." The blonde mused, shaking her head. The last thing she needed was to appear weak in front of Ayaka. "Cheeky thing would probably try and flaunt it around Emiya-san somehow."

The thought made her smirk a bit.

Exiting the computer lab, she sighed as she looked around the messy hallway. Unlike the others, this one still had shattered pieces of glass scattered about. Being careful to avoid them, she casually sauntered over towards the teacher's lounge. She could hear the sound of a floor buffer being used down a side hall and smiled.

"Ah, good." Manaka began, looking in that direction. "I can ask them to clean up outside the computer lab next."

She was smiling as she saw the head of the floor buffer cross the threshold, but her smile instantly dropped from her face as she saw it. Manaka quickly darted into the shadows cast between two sets of lockers. Peeking out around a corner, she saw that the machine was indeed running.

Despite its lack of cord.

Despite the lack of anyone pushing it around.

Despite blatantly violating every single shred of common sense-!

The whirl of the machine's motor drew closer, causing Manaka's heart to leap to her throat. The lights of the floor buffer grew brighter as it skid past Manaka. She choked as she pressed herself up against the wall. Her body began to tremble as the machine rolled past her - pausing directly in front of her for a long moment.

Manaka's eyes widened as the machine revved its motor. With a panicked scream, the blonde twisted and shoved the floor buffer away as she turned and ran away. Since fear wasn't exactly conducive towards thinking correctly, the girl ran back into the computer lab. Hearing the sound of the approaching floor buffer, she slammed the door shut and locked it once she was inside.

Hearing a bump from the door, she felt a wave of nausea assault her as she ran away from the door. Taking shelter beneath a set of desks in the back corner of the room, the girl trembled a bit as she kept hearing knocking at the door.

"Ha..."

Manaka's shuddering breathing was the only noise in the computer lab. Minutes passed by in agonizing tension, but it began to fade after hitting the double digits. The knocking didn't resume though, and that caused Manaka to relax a little. Manaka's curled up position eased as she released her panicked grip on her knees.

She chewed on her lip in thought. Only the faint noises of the computer above her could be heard now that she was relaxed.

Was she safe?

Manaka squeezed her arms as she tentatively stretched her leg out from underneath the desk.

The computer let out a loud chirp from its speakers.

Manaka squealed in terror at the cheerful chime coming from above her, smashing the top of her head against the bottom of the desk. She winced, but ignored the pain as she scrambled to try and get away, clawing her way out from beneath the desk as her instincts just blared at her to get away.

Having pressed herself mindlessly up against a corner of the room, she felt like a total fool when she saw the empty classroom. Only the insistent chiming of the computer was revealed. The room was devoid of any possessed floor buffers or other obviously malovent forces.

Manaka felt like a heel.

The blonde warily stared at the computer as she walked over towards the door she had hastily boarded. Her early moment of shame grew stronger as she looked at the wheeled chair that was standing in front of her barricade.

She probably would've been dead twice over if she had really been attacked.

Choosing not to linger on her macabre thoughts, the girl timidly moved towards the door. The sound of the possessed machine's motor couldn't be heard anymore. Manaka shifted in place nervously, placing her ear up against the door, closing her eyes as she tried to ignore the chiming from the computer behind her.

It wasn't working.

Manaka's eyes opened, thin slits of annoyance as she turned to look at the computer. Her annoyance faded as the chimes suddenly stopped. A moment passed before the chime gave way to a short little ditty.

The blonde hissed, drawing in a sharp breath as she pressed her back tightly against the door. Her hand shook as she bonelessly pawed at the door knob, trying to decide whether to flee or stay in the face of the strange, frightening device.

Her decision was made when she felt a knock against the door.

Manaka yelped, leaping forwards as if someone had poured boiling water on her back. The girl almost completely lost her balance as she wobbled forwards, swinging her arms willdy to control herself. She clutched at her chest as she wildly spun to face the door, nervously backing away.

The computer beeped behind her.

"...at least the computer won't try and kill me." Manaka said, expression falling as she glanced at the possessed machine. "I hope." She finished with a sigh.

* * *

><p>Berserker sighed, shaking her head. The girl boredly watched the floor buffer bump into the door that they had followed the blonde haired girl to one more time before she spoke up.<p>

"We should go." She told the machine, making it pause and inquisitively rumble at her. "Yeah, we don't need her help getting around. I can just sense Master's magical signature when we get close enough. Even with all of my energy running through the building."

The floor buffer let out another muted roar.

Berserker smiled, "Yeah! Then we can enact the greatest of love love plans." Just like the shows that the television had shown her while she was at home.

The machine clicked at her dismissively.

"...s'not stupid." Berserker answered, expression falling at the lack of faith. The floor buffer stayed quiet as the adjustable handle lowered for the girl to sit side saddle on. "I'll show you! This will definitely work out, trust me!"

Both of them put the strange girl out of their thoughts as they continued on their way.

* * *

><p>Hello. The computer screen flickered at her. Thank you for your work fixing the network.<p>

Manaka stared at the screen in front of her in shock. On it, a blank word program was filling up with words. She looked at the back of the computer tower. The internet cable was dangling loosely, showing that the computer wasn't connected to the network.

"You're welcome?" She typed on the computer.

I got a little too eager and overloaded them. The computer paused for a few moments. Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot my manners. My name is Berserker.

"...what's a norse warrior doing inside my school's computer?" Manaka asked, expression growing angry as she looked around.

Well, I'm not from the northern lands. That is just my title. I originally came from Germany.

"If this is a joke, it's a pretty bad one." She called out in a warning tone. "Almost as bad as those new year manzai." Manaka ducked her head as she mumbled the last to herself.

What's manzai? The computer's question made Manaka flinch back in shock. Even as the girl pushed the keyboard aside to look for microphones, it continued. Is it like paizu-

"No!" Manaka shouted, cheeks burning red. "Don't finish that thought!"

Oh. Berserker continued shortly. Your classmates only ever looked up the latter. I thought they sounded similar enough...

Finding no sign of a recording device anywhere, Manaka tentatively called out.

"Berserker?"

Yes?

Manaka hissed out a breath as a shock thrilled through her.

"You're...really alive?"

Of course. Just as much as you are.

Manaka was thunderstruck. Her fingers twitched as she eagerly leaned towards the computer. Not even bothering to type now, she directly asked the machine her next question.

"How? Are you some sort of government experiment?" She breathlessly wondered, shoulders flexing forwards as she hunched closer. "Why are you here?"

My father made me. The text briefly gained a hint of red to them. I'm here because he didn't need me. Before Manaka could say anything, it went back to normal. But please, I need your help finding Shirou Emiya!

"How do you know Emiya-san?"

I have to warn him that the janitors are going to turn off the power.

Manaka blinked.

...and that's going to permanently stop the ones that were just born.

The student body president rocked backwards, the wheeled chair carrying her back a bit. "What? There's more of you?" She demanded.

Please, I just need to transfer onto your cell phone. The computer begged. I've learned how to keep myself from damaging systems after I played around. It's a matter of life and death.

Manaka wasn't sure what was going on, but...

"Deal." She wasn't going to lose a chance like this. The girl stood up and rushed to the teacher's desk at the head of the class to fetch her phone and the data adaptor that she had bought for it. Behind her, she remained unaware as the screen of the computer darkened.

* * *

><p>Shirou stared at the hand held radio in shock. His eyes, pupils on them dilated in shock, switched over towards the coffemaker he had almost switched off.<p>

"It's true." The radio replied matter of factly. "She would have died if you had switched her off."

His free hand was jammed into his pants' pocket fast enough he nearly took off a nail. The boy staggered away from the machines, back slamming against the doorframe leading out of the teacher's lounge. Shirou trembled for a moment, and the teenager realized his breath was coming out in ragged gasps.

"It did not happen though, sir." The radio was quick to assure the boy. "Please don't panic."

"She's fine?" Shirou questioned. The coffeemaker let out a shrill whistle, almost reassuringly as the boy's tense frame began to relax as he heavily rested against the wall.

"Of course, sir." The radio calmly responded. "The others are as well."

A look of dawning horror crossed Shirou's face.

"'Others'?"

"Master!" Berserker's voice sang out. Thoroughly surprised, Shirou could only duck his head out into the hall and stare as she manifested down the hallway. Shortly trailing behind the white clad girl was a cordless floor buffer.

The surreal sight only received a split second of attention before Berserker pulled him out of the teacher's lounge and into a careful embrace. Shirou squeaked as the girl picked him off the ground, happily swinging him from side to side.

"I'm so glad that I could see you again!" Berserker babbled, nuzzled her cheek against his. "I made a new friend today, Master! I really wanted you to meet him. He's the bestest of them all, and we agree on so many things."

"Limbs! Making with the breaking! Ow! Ow! Ow!"

Berserker giggled. Her master was such a joker. The average human body needed far more pressure before it broke.

"What are you doing here?" Shirou asked. He glanced at the generator that was strapped her to her back. "Don't you know how dangerous coming here was for you?"

"Gen-san and I were alright..."

"Gen-san?"

Berserker smiled and smartly nodded with a grunt of acknowledgement. The blocky generator on her back suddenly rumbled to life, making the boy twitch in Berseker's arms.

"Why is that thing wearing underwea … are those my boxers?" The floor buffer buzzed, handle adjusting itself to almost try and hide the boxers that were proudly dangling off the top of it.

Berserker's gaze was drawn towards her companion as well. Her mouth went into a small o of shock as she released Shirou, almost causing the boy to land face first as she quickly shuffled in front of the floor buffer.

"No!" She shouted, waving wildly with one hand. The other surrepitiously moved to pluck the underwear off the handle. "That's his! I was giving him advice on what kind of underwear is best!"

Shirou's eyes narrowed.

"Why are you trying to hide it in your dress, then?"

Berserker briefly looked like she was going to meet the challenge, but her conflicted expression crumbled when the boy turned up the intensity of his gaze.

"...they remind me of you." She lowered her head.

It didn't look like shame, though. Shirou could see her wringing his boxers in her hands.

Shirou was about to pursue this new, slightly disturbing twist that he had discovered, but a burst of static and noise drew both of their attention to the radio in the teacher's lounge. Berserker's eyes lit up in wonder as she rushed in, focusing on the radio and then the coffeemaker.

Shirou, stunned at the fact that there were even more of these appliances besides the ones at the school, stared at the odd tableaux.

"More friends!" She squealed, rubbing her hands together eagerly. "I can't wait to introduce you both to Refrigerator and Television back home!"

"There's more? Back home?" Shirou muttered, an acute sense of paranoia filling him as he now realize that Berserker's funny trait of referencing the other furniture as people gained a new meaning.

Berserker took a wide legged stance, placing her hands - which Shirou noticed were still clutching his underwear - on her hips. "Refridgerator says you need to stop taking midnight snacks." She chided, shaking her head at him.

"...those were for Shinji!" Shirou paused, expression shifting from guilt to annoyance. "And I bought them anyway!"

The floor buffer rolled into the room last, making Shirou do a double take when its handle shifted, tapping him on the shoulder.

He glanced down at the machine and it repeated its action.

"Thank you?" Shirou's gratitude made the floor buffer flare its lights. The machine, having comforted him, rolled into the room with the other sapient machines.

"Hello, Berserker." The radio smoothly replied. "I assume that we unleashed the Galvanism system, correct?"

Berserker worriedly glanced at Shirou from the side of her eyes before giving a tiny nod.

"This is troubling, Berserker. You know that the Spark of Life is not a toy that can be played with so easily."

Berserker awkwardly shuffled her footing.

"What?" Shirou balked. "You can do that with it too?" His questions tumbled from his lips in an steady flow. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Master Shirou," The radio cut in before he could continue. "We need to locate the rest of our fellows." When he gave her a queer look, it continued. "We're all essentially helpless at the moment. Berserker must grant us a second charge from her Spark of Life, or we will die if we run out of energy."

Shirou paled.

"What?"

"Emiya-san!" The boy threw himself in front of Fran, who instantly vanished from sight, as Manaka Sajyou came barreling through the teacher's lounge. The male's brief moment of flashing her a stupified look was ended as the blonde cut through the air with a neglect hand. "We have to stop the janitors!"

"Master..." An open cellphone dangling from her wrist chimed. "The building's grid told me that they're planning on resetting the circuit breaker."

Shirou was already out the door, practically bulldozing Manaka. His mind furiously raced. An irrational terror gripped him as he recalled a memory he held very dear and close to his heart.

The smell of burnt flesh filled his nose, almost making him gag. He broke out in sweat from imagined heat.

Never again!

"I'll distract them." The radio urgently told the girl, voice shifting mid sentence to sound like the principal. "Head downstairs and help Master stop them!"

Manaka didn't need to be told twice. Grabbing the radio, she turned and ran after Shirou.

* * *

><p>To be a magus meant to walk a path of death.<p>

The observer noted that someone had forgotten to tell this magus that life lesson. Moving out from where they had been observing the Emiya home - they gestured and used the minimal amount of magical energy needed to guide their assistants.

Two adult humans carrying a gallon of gasoline followed them as they approached the entrance. It was child's play to get in. The boundary field that had been tested once before rang along their senses, but they had already tested it.

It was nonlethal.

The idea that someone would place such a field seemed almost hilarious to them as they entered the home. What sort of magus would do this? A fool? Or someone so confident that they thought something less lethal would be needed.

Perhaps the magus was both.

These lands had been handed down the Tohsaka lineage for generations, and had been converted to be an area capable of manifesting and maintaing Heroic Spirits. It was sheer madness to summon a Heroic Spirit without the support of the earth, but somehow the magus had done it. They wondered how much damage the land had suffered from it.

Something like this would assuredly set back the start of the next Heaven's Feel.

As they followed the flow of prana from the monstrous creature, they could see its origin. The result was so humorous that they were forced to strike a bowl of fruit off a nearby table. The clatter and tinkle of shattered dishware and appetizing food distracted them from the disgusting truth.

It had been the shed all along.

On their previous observations, they had felt no sense of magic beyond the field itself, which had reacted to them. This time they could feel the magic clinging to the building. A gesture and they were followed into the building by their followers.

They gasped as they looked around. The interior had changed, that was for sure. A massive magic circle, filled with the symbols for the Heaven's Feel ritual were engraved into the ground along with simple, efficient wards designed to bleed off energy overflow.

Staring at the patterns, the observer - an apprentice in this world of magi, found themselves getting dizzy and confused in short order.

What kind of line of thinking was this?

If what they saw was true, the circle and whatever ritual were meant to take place in this area were essentially self perpetuating. The excess power from whatever was going on here, which still felt thick even hours after whatever ritual had occured, would eventually replenish the land itself.

Magi didn't think like this, did they?

They weren't experts, far from it, but this circle wasn't really breaking new ground. It was simply trying to do a better job at energy management.

But knowledge was dangerous.

Especially this knowledge.

The invader left their associates standing by as they turned and began to ransack the shed. A few minutes later they found what they were looking for: a simple binder notebook. Opening it, they began to thumb through the diagrams and notes.

"I...can't let this go on anymore." The observer, turned invader, and now finally destroyer, looked at the two mindless adults they had brought with them. They annoyedly glanced at the television in the corner of the room, which had been loudly blaring all this time. "Pour the gasoline on the floor and walls and set it all on fire."

As their unwilling helpers moved to pour the gasoline over the ground and walls of the shed, the destroyer went up to the television; they gripped the extension cord, and yanked it off, powering down the device.

The smell of smoke reached their nose. Their associates had already begun to set fire to the building.

"Get out of here. Go back home." The destroyer ordered their motionless associates. "You'll remember nothing of what you did once you've entered your home again."

They silently nodded as they turned and began to walk away. The destroyer briefly glanced at the burning shed one more time before they went to follow after them. In their hands they held the book of notes that they had recovered from the building.

This had gone on too far.

It was time for an intervention.


	8. Chapter 8

Fate/Stay Night and its spin offs are properties of Type-Moon, Nitroplus, and Image Epoch. All additional references belong to their respective companies.

Chapter 8: Evaluation - Ally of Justice II

* * *

><p>The school was aflutter with activity when Taiga arrived. Pedestrians were rubbernecking across the street and several teenagers had to be driven away when staff caught them trying to leap the stone fences around the school. The flashing light of a parked ambulance made the woman's gut clench.<p>

A line around the gate had been drawn.

"Fujimura!" Shinji's voice called out to her from the crowd gathered near the fringes of the crowds of teenagers gathered near the gate. The boy disentangled himself away from the group to meet Taiga, wildly gesturing at her as he angrily continued. "Some old guy flew out of the front of the school like a jackass and now they're blaming Shirou!"

"They're what?" Taiga demanded. The recent revelations slipping from her mind at the thought of someone bad mouthing her Shirou. "How dare they! Shirou has never been violent!"

"Is that so, Fujimura-san?" At the voice of the principal behind her, Taiga's temper wildly guttered out. She glanced over at the approaching man, remembering the application she had left for him the other day. The warm, pleasant expression she remembered on his face was now cold and stern, set to match against her clashing disbelief and anger at his accusations. "Not even a thought about consulting me before you make up your mind? Your grandfather would be feeling ashamed at the moment." The elderly man walked around her, meeting Taiga's fierce gaze without batting an eye.

Taiga stayed silent, returning his even expression. By her side, Shinji winced, feeling the atmosphere thicken.

"Doesn't sound like something that one of my teachers would do. Or anyone else's staff, really." He mused, letting the faint threat hang in the air.

Shinji's eyes narrowed.

"What's going on with Shirou?" He demanded, blustering to stand besides the older woman. The older man glanced at the boy briefly before looking at Taiga again. "Hey, don't ignore me!"

"One of our janitors has a broken arm." The principal told Taiga. "And he says that the Fujimura's ward, which I took in on your family's word, caused that to happen."

Taiga clenched her fists.

"What? Shirou is a total wet blanket!" Shinji snarled, shaking his head and sweeping his arm before him. "I tell him he should be punching people, but the guy has the patience of Buddha!"

"Not." Taiga hissed, sparing the boy a brief glance. "Helping."

Shinji held up his hands in surrender, expression falling.

"Well then, I'd like for you to go to the front of the school and talk Emiya-san down." The principal continued like he hadn't even heard the two. His mouth tightened in a deeper frown. "You'll find someone is already there, trying to talk another young lady that joined your ward in this foolish act."

Taiga blinked.

* * *

><p>Taiga looked uneasily at the uniformed men and women standing next to the gate. For some strange reason, a nauseous looking man dressed in a security uniform was off to the side, rubbing a set of prayer beads between his hands. The woman didn't get much more time to look around before the principal, who had been walking by her side silently up until now, walked up to the police.<p>

"She's the other one." The elderly man told them. Receiving a nod from them, he stepped to the side and gestured at Taiga. "The sister of the other student with Emiya will be closer to the building, along with some officers in case this gets worse."

Taiga grimaced, wondering what would happen if things did get worse. She looked at her side to see how pensive looking Shinji was acting.

"Can I come with you?" He asked, eyes intently focused on the building ahead. "Whatever that idiot is doing has to be important."

The boy's words reassured Taiga. She smiled gratefully with renewed confidence.

She looked over at the police, but they mutely shook their heads. Taiga silently glanced at Shinji, helpless in her silence.

"...alright." Shinji rolled his head, trying to get an imaginary crick out of his neck. Once he was sure he wasn't going to say anything stupid, he continued. "I'll wait for you two back home." At Taiga's flabbergasted look, he hurriedly added on. "Shirou's home! Shirou's home!"

Taiga smirked.

"Don't you dare put any words in my mouth!" Shinji huffed as he stormed away. "I'll make something crappy for you two to eat, so don't take so long, old lady!" He threw his last statement out loudly before vanishing into the crowd.

Despite their silent posturing, even the police looked a little bit softer as Taiga crossed the breach into the school.

'We'll all eat your crappy cooking.' She promised to herself.

* * *

><p>"Sister! Please come out!" Ayaka Sajyou begged into the bullhorn she was given. The building in front of her was still as calm as it had been for the last half hour. "The police said that they'll use smoke if you don't come out-"<p>

She abruptly cut off when she saw the older woman approach her.

"Hello?" Ayaka asked, but realized she had kept using her bullhorn to address the newcomer. Too late for the poor woman, considering she was clutching at her ears as she approached Ayaka.

To her embarrassment, she could hear faint guffaws from the police that were standing closer to the school with ramming equipment.

"I'm sorry." Ayaka stammered, bowing at the older woman. "I just needed to get through to Manaka, but she never listens to me. Then she pinches my cheeks and says I'm slow and I shouldn't dare question her. I think it stems by the fact that she has a daddy complex and is totally into those caring, mature types but I think that's lame because what if someone else wants to try their luck? She's pretty, so she can have whoever she wants and-"

"It's fine! It's nothing compared to what I'm used to." The twenty year old good-naturedly replied. Her pitch was uneven as she rubbed her left ear more. "You should hear my grandfather's yelling!"

Ayaka uneasily smiled back.

"I'm Taiga Fujimura." She thumbed at the building. "I'm here for the idiot with red hair." Taiga smiled at her reassuringly. "Who are you here for?"

Ayaka awkwardly smiled.

"My name is Ayaka Sajyou." The young girl stated, but she sounded oddly unsure to the woman. Taiga was about to call her out on it, but Ayaka injected some false cheer in her voice and bulled through to her next statement. "I'm here for Manaka Sajyou, the lucky idiot that's probably with Emiya-san right now."

By this point, Ayaka was clutching at her skirt, firmly nodding as if trying to desperately convince herself of some private thought. Taiga had seen such looks before plenty of times in college, usually on the faces of people that were close to failing out of a class and just trying to keep themselves from going on a bender and propositioning the professors for extensions.

The girl wasn't helping her case with the faint mumbling beneath her breath.

"Well, let's try to get our idiots out." Taiga shakily smiled. She hoped the other girl wasn't going to go into a rant. "Then we can go home, how about that?" She offered the younger girl.

She really didn't want her boy getting too involved with someone like this.

* * *

><p>"I feel like I should be smug about now." Manaka mused, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear as she looked around her. "But I don't know who to brag to."<p>

She looked down at the cell phone dangling from her wrist.

"I'm not here to listen to your egotistic rants." The cell phone was sulky. "Why couldn't I go with Master?"

"Because you're my phone?"

"Property rights are nothing in the face of my love."

Their back and forth continued for several more minutes. Manaka would occasionally pause in each classroom and sweep the phone in front of her face.

"No reaction here either." The cell phone reported. "Can we go?"

Manaka frowned at the device.

"Weren't you worried about the others?"

The phone scoffed.

"I just wanted to make sure I didn't die." The phone played a little song. "Survival of the fittest!"

Manaka considered.

"Smart girl."

"Thanks. I knew you were smart." The device considered. "For a pathetic creature of meat and bones."

Manaka frowned, gazing at her gut pointedly. She wasn't that bad.

On mutual agreement, the two of them decided it might be worth their time hanging around Shirou more.

* * *

><p>Shirou and Berserker were walking on the top floor of the school building. The floor buffer followed them at their heels, its motor the only sound in the darkening halls. Berserker's generator puttering was almost silent in comparison.<p>

"Master, I think we've gotten everyone." Berserker chirped as she followed by Shirou's side from a supply closet. "Should we go up to the roof for the escape plan?"

Several appliances stacked up high enough to easily topple over her, were held with a sure grip. Despite the sloppy way they were gathered in her hands, they defied the law of gravity and refused to fall. Shirou briefly stared at the impossibility.

"That's because they don't want to fall."

The red head almost fumbled the coffee maker that refused to let anyone else hold it when he heard the radio's calm voice from inside the pile of knick knacks.

"You didn't forget me, did you?" The radio asked. Her following question had a hint of teasing. "Am I lacking that much presence? You'll make me sad if you do. Then you'll have to hear an hour long enka marathon."

The coffee maker whistled.

"Yes, then we will all lose."

"What is enka?" Berserker innocently wondered. The question made Shirou wince in reply. "Oh, not good?"

"...an acquired taste." Shirou diplomatically replied. "One that we don't have time for." He shook his head, holding up a hand as he walked over to the side of the hall. Peering out through the window, he could see the police gathering below.

Berserker silently moved next to him.

"We have to get everyone out of here before it's too late." Shirou directed their attention back on getting out. "Are you sure this plan will work?"

"Of course!" Berserker smiled. "Once I go immaterial, it doesn't matter if I jump off the roof. I can take everything with me since they're all like me."

Shirou breathed a sigh of relief.

"But there's one last thing..." The radio trailed off, sounding unsure. "Something very important."

Shirou blinked, glancing down at the device stuck in his pocket.

A series of powerful beams of light glared off the windows to strike the ceiling of the room. The dark halls lit up a bit. Briefly surprised, both of them froze in place - Shirou himself almost expecting the sound of helicopters. When nothing came else came, Shirou made his decision.

"Stay back, Berserker!" He hissed.

The girl reluctantly clung to the back wall of the hallway as the boy approached the windows. Far below, he could see those same intense lights sweeping the lower floors from more than a dozen sources.

"Throw yourself upon the mercy of the court." A familiar voice boomed through the tense silence that had descended. "I may grant leniency. Or a kung fu chop."

Shirou gaped. Who in their right minds had given Taiga a bullhorn?

"Fuji-nee!" He opened the window and shouted down below. "What are you doing here?"

For his troubles, he received several blinding blasts of light to the face before they pulled away. He mentally prepared himself as he took a deep breath. As soon as the splotches of darkness vanished, he created his magic circuit.

Shirou's pained wheeze rewarded him with Berserker anxiously making noise from his side. He heavily leaned up against the window sill as he used his reinforcement on his eyes, blinking to banish the last of the spots.

Down below he could see Taiga, Sajyou, and several officers were now intensely focusing up at him. Like he had thought, some mad man had given his guardian the bullhorn. At her side, a pensive looking Ayaka was rubbing her hands.

His guardian shook a fist up at him before she continued her demands.

"Drop the coffemaker and return to the first floor."

Shirou's lips thinned as another surge of pain wracked his body from his usage of magic. He fought back the urge to emit a high pitched wheeze as he took in a gulp of breath. This attempt at using magic was already proving much harder than he had done before.

It just wasn't working out properly. Regretfully, he released his magic, returning his vision back to normal.

"No! I can't do that now." When he saw the looks that Ayaka and the officers were giving him, he continued. "I ...there's something we have to take care of down here!"

"Master, are you alright?" Berserker quietly prodded, seeing how his legs were trembling beneath him. "What did you do?" She anxiously asked.

"...I'll tell you later." He actually realized, to his great shock, that he hadn't been practicing his magecraft in all this time. The hours that would've normally been spent inserting the hot rod of steel into his spine to activate his magic had been spent working on keeping Berserker alive.

It...somewhat disturbed him that he had gotten so sidetracked from his old work.

"...ghost stories aren't real." To her credit, at least Taiga sounded somewhat sheepish in her reply. Shirou could feel Berserker grow flustered at his side by words, hearing the Heroic Spirit's bluster and angry mutterings. "Just let the janitors in so they can fix things. Shinji is making dinner for us."

"It looks like what's done is done." Manaka suddenly called out, drawing Shirou's attention to the west side of the hall. His motion caused the beams of lights to fruitlessly twist in that direction, but since Manaka wasn't against any window, they weren't able to see her. "Where's your friend?" She wondered.

"Is that my sister?" Ayaka's voice suddenly chimed. Her tone sounded aggrivated. "Tell her to come and face the music too!"

"They can't conclusively prove I'm in here." The blonde worryingly laughed with an assurance that disturbed Shirou. "Did your friend find out way out?" She wondered. "If so, I'll need a lift out."

Shirou chewed his lip.

"Don't ignore me, Shirou! She's probably saying shady things to you right now, isn't she?"

Manaka huffed, throwing her short hair back with a smooth stroke of her hand.

"Stupid loser~ Can't do anything fun. Still probably wets her bed."

Shirou winced.

"...I saw that look, Shirou! Don't listen to her! She's the devil! The devil!"

"Come on, Shirou." Manaka gave him a rather disturbingly wicked smile. "I got the keys to the roof. We can get out like we planned." She looked way too excited about what was going on for Shirou's own good. "Once I'm out, I'll talk to my papa and let them get away with a slap on the wrist."

Shirou hesistated, glancing back to the lights below.

'Uhm...sorry.' Shirou winced, feeling like a heel as he turned away from the plaintative cries from below. 'I really need to get her out.' With that final thought in mind, he nodded at Manaka as he walked away from the window.

"You're a bad, bad boy, Master." The cell phone dangling off Manaka's wrist sounded delighted. "This day turned out to be better and better!"

* * *

><p>The wind was intense as they came up to the roof of the building, held back by the mesh and chainlink fence all around the perimeter. The sound of Ayaka and Taiga's alternating cries over the bullhorn faintly reached the group as they moved away from the stairwell.<p>

"Are you sure you're alright with this?" Shirou uneasily asked Manaka, still holding the coffemaker close to his chest. "It isn't...normal."

"I know, right?" Manaka eagerly replied, grinning widely over her shoulder. "None of this has made one lick of sense, but it's been an amazing ride!" She licked her lips.

Berserker narrowed her eyes. The roof buffer she was gripping in other hand shifted, bonking her on the head. Her squeak of pain brought the two human's attention back to her.

"This is still incredible." Manaka shook her head. "Once this blows over, can you both tell me what's going on? Living appliances like this is just...just wow." The blonde looked at him in wonder. "You're a genius, Emiya-kun. This is going to revolutionize the world."

Shirou blushed.

"That..." He hung up on her praise. Berserker met his gaze uneasily. "Exactly right. She's mine, yes. Everything that comes from her too."

Berserker let out a tiny squeal of glee. At his proclamation, the other appliances rattled eagerly.

"My, what a Casanova." The radio wryly said. "A harem, at your age." She good-naturedly teased him.

"Oh, the things I would do to you if I had a body..." The cell phone mourned. "So, so many things I learned..."

"Wha-!"

Manaka smirked.

"Anyway," The girl drew the attention of the others towards her. "Our friends are getting impatient." She gestured off to the side of the rooftop. It was only thanks to the chain link that they were able to see that the light beams were sweeping upwards.

"Alright, then." Shirou nodded. He moved to sit down on a clear patch of the roof, patting his lap as he set the coffee maker in the space between his legs. Once he was done, he nodded at Berserker. "Set them down."

Berserker carefully began lowering everything they had gathered.

"Are you sure you can ...do whatever you need to with them?" Manaka uneasily wondered, looking over the twenty appliances.

"That's why I have you two, right?" Shirou smiled up at her. "You and Berserker are going to be my distraction."

Manaka silently nodded, rubbing her right shoulder a bit nervously as she looked at Berserker.

"Are you ready, then?"

"Of course!" Berserker beamed. "I'll make sure you don't splatter all over the sidewalk."

Manaka began to gnaw her lip.

Shirou caught her expression, and cleared his throat, pointedly looking at Berserker. She blinked at him, and visibly considered her words - bringing up her pointer finger to her lips in thought. Her mouth closed to a tiny circle of surprise.

"I swear that I will not drop you." Berserker swore, sincerity in her expression. "Nor shake, rattle, nor induce whiplash in you."

Shirou rolled his eyes.

"Right, well, I need you two to make the biggest exit you can make." Shirou hurriedly continued. "Without breaking anything." He specifically addressed Berserker. The girl moaned in disappointment, but said nothing as he continued. "They'll follow you, but my...robot here will shake them off." He finished, and expectantly looked at Manaka.

"Okay." Manaka acknowledged with a nod. "Then we just have to go to the closest light pole in the area, right?" She began to pace around Shirou, looking at the boy as he began to move the appliances and devices carefully around him in a semi circle before pausing. "To transfer the intelligence that's lurking inside this building."

"Like with your phone." Berserker smiled, throwing in her two cents. "And computer-san."

"You can all thank me by prostrating yourselves before me when this is over." The phone dryly acknowledged Berserker.

"If everyone is ready...?" Shirou trailed off when Manaka held up a hand. "What is it, Sajyou-san?"

"Call me Manaka." She bluntly answered, staring at him intently. "How are you going to transfer all these intelligences, though?" The blonde gestured at the items arrayed around him. "You didn't explain that."

Shirou thinly smiled.

"I have my ways." He replied, holding up the radio. "Go ahead and leave. We're almost out of time. I bet they'll be going to try and enter the front now that they know we're on the higher floors."

"Yes, Master!" Berserker snapped at attention. She walked up to, swept up, and began to run away with Manaka in her arms. "I'll be back to get everyone on the roof after the energy is sent away!" The redhead called back.

"Alright!" Shirou replied, already preparing himself mentally to use his ability to project. He just hoped his copies would last long enough for what he needed from them. "Just remember - don't let them see you." A slow grin appeared on his face. "And make the energy transfer as flashy as possible!"

Berserker beamed.

In Berserker's arms, Manaka began to ferally grin as her heart began to rapidly pound.

"Berserker?"

"Yes?"

"I always wanted to do this." They were almost at the edge of the roof. "Can you shout this along with me?"

"Okay!" Berserker agreed, loving the chance to scream for no good reason. "What is it?"

"It's..."

* * *

><p>'What are you doing, Shirou?' Taiga thought, handing back the bullhorn back to Ayaka. 'They're going to break in now that you showed yourself on the roof. Why'd you do that?' The group had quickly moved around towards the front of the school.<p>

Then the scream came.

"I...CAN...FLY!"

A bright flash of light radiated upwards from the school.

"It's that demon!" The school's gate guard screamed, hiding himself back in his booth. "I'm done! I quit!" He declared, grabbing his things to head back to his old life at the temple.

"...it's that scream again?" The principal breathed in shock, head rising towards the skies above. "No! Things like that don't happen in this world!"

"Berserker...?" Taiga questioned, almost gagging the word outloud in shock. The scream had been easily recognizable to her.

Many of the rubberneckers still around the school screamed and pointed above the school as a swirl of green and yellow light erupted out from a corner of the school. The streams of energy swirled around each other like a tornado as they rose upwards. The vary tip of the tornado had a tiny figure being elevated upwards at incredible speeds.

"It's ...Manaka?" Ayaka's declaration caused the police walking with the two women to tense up.

Even if it was impossible at this hour, the few people that could do it tried to use their phones to take pictures. Many of the ones that couldn't do that tried to eagerly press forwards against the staffers, who were no better as they briefly lose their own composure to stare. The school staff shook it off when they saw the police themselves push and cajool the people to stay back.

At the peak of its jump, the thin tornado guttered out, running out of energy. The figure that was being carried began to sharply descend at an angle that would have them land on the school's pool. Ayaka let out a shrill scream as she wildly gestured upwards.

"It is!" She threw the bullhorn away and ran towards the impact point, ignoring the shouted commands of the police to stop as she raced to the landing point.

Taiga herself was rendered mute in shock as she glanced up at the roof top, unable to move from what she had just seen. She knew Berserker's excesses were tempered by Shirou. Her boy wouldn't let her run wild like what she had just seen.

Unless it was intentional.

A production to buy time? Shirou hadn't gone with them, so he had to be doing something up on the higher floors of the school. The timing was too convenient, right?

Unable to really predict what was going on, Taiga turned and raced after the group. She'd try and delay the others from entering the school. If she was wrong, then she'd get in trouble. If she was right, hopefully she could help Shirou.

A geyser rose in the distance, causing Taiga to sympathetically wince.

Production it was, then.

Taiga also received her confirmation as to the identity of the actor when she smelt ozone in the air. She felt her hair frizzle up and rise in the muggy, charged atmosphere as the saw the police and Ayaka searching through the destroyed pool. A massive crater was in the corner of the pool and the entire area was flooded with water that had been thrown out when Berserker had landed.

The only other overt sign of damage was a torn down wall, revealing the streets on the other side.

"Fujimura-san!" Ayaka screamed for Taiga's attention, moving over towards her with an expression just shy of a total mental breakdown. "They can't find her!" Her voice had gained a bit of a wobbling whine as she wildly gestured at the two police officers remaining to inspect the pool damage. "The others ran through the hole to find who did this!"

Feeling sympathy for Ayaka, Taiga reached over and hugged the girl, feeling her shudder in her arms as she rubbed her upper back. The older woman made a note to pummel the two brats when this entire mess was over.

It was a sad day when Shinji Matou was behaving better than Shirou.

* * *

><p>The streets of Fuyuki were lit up by flashlights that night. Several police officers stormed down the streets, their rapid footfalls eclipsed by the sounds of heavy metal crunching the pavement. The sound alone would've been enough to guide them on its own, but the circular indentations was practically an invitation.<p>

Briefly one of the officers saw a flash of red and white on the side of his vision.

"She came this way!" One of the officers shouted, gesturing for the others to follow after him. Turning down the side street, he saw the anxious looks of his fellow officers, but he refused to let this latest twist daunt him. "Hurry!"

It was practically from out of a television show!

With visions of chasing a monstrous suspect down an ally to save a girl, the rookie was caught flatfooted as he came to a dead end. Several nondescript looking homes, with one or two of their owners having moved out from the thundering crash that had been heading their way, stared at him in surprise.

"...huh?" The man dumbly asked, rapidly glancing around. "Where...is it?" He asked himself, woodenly staring back at the rest of the team.

A horned girl, concealed from both sight and hearing stood only a few feet away from him. She patiently waited until the man looked like he was in control of his faculties and joined by the other officers with him before vanishing to go back to Manaka's side.

She knew what it was like to be a failed hero.

...

Manaka Sajyou and her cell phone were looking up at a light pole several blocks away. The girl looked winded, but she appeared bright eyed as she chatted up the phone in her hands.

"This one is far enough away from the main street that it'll work, I think." The blonde cheerfully observed. "What do you think, Fran?"

"Fran?" The phone asked, voice pitched in a hiss. It almost sounded like its signal strength was breaking up as she continued. "What sort of term is that? I'm Berserker."

"Berserker isn't a very girly name." Manaka authoratively declared. "And you're both girls, right?"

"Not all of us born from the spark are fema..."

"Yadda yadda yadda." The school president waved her hand as she paced around the light pole. "That's why it's just 'Fran'. I couldn't go with Francis since Berserker, the radio, and you are girls. But the others seem like machines, and I don't think it's right to give them a gender."

"Why Fran, though?" The phone still sounded unsure about her thought processes. "It doesn't sound japanese. I doubt Master will like it."

"It's cute. Plus we can make it sound cuter for you girls by calling you Frannie. Or maybe Frankie." The blonde held up a finger. Her hips swayed from side to side as she considered. "I think Shirou would like it."

Manaka grinned, looking smug.

"...why?"

"It's western." Manaka answered the phone, fluffing her blonde hair. "I bet he'd like it."

The phone squawked, not liking the implications she just heard.

"If Master would accept it, I would take that name as well." The non-human of the two reluctantly allowed, if only to keep the human girl from getting an advantage. "Still, I'd like to know where you got such a nonsensical name from."

Manaka looked happy to answer, taking her cell phone, which she had been allowing to dangle off her wrist, into both hands.

"Well, it is a real name, for starters." The blonde bulled through before the phone could react. "And really, you probably weren't programmed by Shirou with that knowledge yet. This entire night has read like something from Mary Shelley."

An unsettling feeling descended on the presence inside the phone.

"You wouldn't know," Manaka blandly continued as Berserker herself descended on the area, lightly landing before going intangible. Berserker was looking a bit distracted, but forced a faint smile on her lips as she began to walk up to Manaka. "But she wrote about 'Frankenstein's Monster'!"

The silence that greeted her answer was positively frigid.

"What?" Manaka blinked down at her phone. She practically leapt out of her skin when she felt a hand heavily descend on her shoulder. "Gah, don't do that! You shouldn't come up from behind people without a 'hello'." The school girl addressed a stone faced Berserker.

"Hello." The redhead stated. She looked up at the light pole. "Is this it?"

Confused about how the other girl was behaving, Manaka uneasily nodded. Berserker tersely grunted as she walked around the school girl and up to the light pole. Manaka briefly glanced at the silent phone in her hand before adding more space between herself and the horned girl.

"Hey, Berserker, what are we going to do when this is over?" Manaka finally decided to broach the subject she had been eager to ask all along. Staring at the girl's back, covered by a still generator and her long red hair, Manaka casually continued. "Like, do you think we can-"

"I don't know about 'we'." Berserker interrupted. She continued to stare up at the light pole, hands slowly beginning to close into fists. "We just have to do our job. Just do what he says to do." She insisted in a subdued voice. "Then I'll go back to his side." The hero glanced over her shoulder at Manaka. "You should have gone back to your home by now. Don't you have your end of the deal to do?"

Manaka's lips curled downwards a bit.

"...yes, we should go for now." The cell phone finally insisted. Her no nonsense tone took the school girl by surprise. "Doing extraneous things should be held back for now, Manaka. We can take care of other matters later, once Master is safe."

"I suppose so." Manaka reluctantly nodded. "Then we'll be off. I know where Shirou lives, so I'll see you two tomorrow." With a casual statement she began to strut away from the area, letting her phone go back to dangling off her wrist. Unbeknownst to her, electricity surged along the device briefly.

Berserker, who had been watching the retreating girl with mixed emotions, saw the energy around the phone. Opening herself to it, she felt a jolt of energy come forth from the cell phone, carrying with it all the dialogue she had with Manaka a few moments ago. Her face fell, by the time she had processed the memories from her other existence, the human girl had vanished.

"I'm a dolt." Berserker grumbled, reaching up to wildly ruffle her hair. "Father had to have used an abnormal brain when he made me!"

On her back, the generator rumbled back to life, trembling a bit.

'Your father only chose the best parts, though. You would not have been chosen by Master otherwise, correct?' It smoothly consoled her. Even as a fire lit up within Berserker's eyes, the generator continued. 'Now, let us plan on further meditation later. For now we must take care to conclude the final part of our plan.'

"Of course Gen-san." She rolled her arms, puffing out her chest as she stared up at her latest challenge. The light pole. "I won't let Master down!"

'...perhaps with a little less zeal?'

"HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIYAH!"

'Or maybe not.'

* * *

><p>Back at the school, Shirou had been at work for the last half hour. His internal odic energy surged through him, wracking his body with agony as he used Structural Analysis for the first time in weeks. The boy's body lit up like a wildfire as his nerves felt like they were boiling inside him.<p>

Unlike his controlled practices back home, here he was under pressure. The time limit before the police either sent someone up to get him on the roof and/or send someone to shut off the fuse box on the second floor hung like a sword of Damocles. Sweat dripped off his face, and his entire body shook as he poured through the designs of the appliances around him.

Information, nearly impossible to glean now that these appliances were alive, flowed through his mind. Even with the tools' permission, it was like trying to psychoanalyze a person. The very fact that these items now had a will fogged things for the middle schooler, making the information he was drawing from sketchy at best.

This would surely make the copies he created through his Gradation Air spell inferior to the things he was used to. The only thing he could hope for was that the fakes would last long enough to throw suspicion off him, but the plan should have definitely cemented the idea that there was a haunting. Hopefully that'd be enough of a smokescreen to hide the issue of things starting to go missing as his inferior copies started breaking down and returning to the void they were created from.

Shirou also had another problem to deal with.

'We can finally talk, Master!'

'Master! Master! Look at me! Ooh! Master! Master!'

'I thank you for taking the time to save an unworthy one such as myself, sir.'

'What do you like? Swords? Swords are so lame! Now, desk lamps are the rage. You can't stab someone if you can't see them, right?'

'Uhm, Master...when this is over...do you want a hug?'

Shirou trembled, shocked with how intimately the presences he was feeling within the objects were addressing him. His voice came out in a flustered stammer.

"I-uh-ah?"

His body wracked with pain even as his mind was overwhelmed at the sheer level of attention. Shirou Emiya was far from being a social person, despite the impression he gave off. The boy's life had been spent in a nebulous haze up to now. Few things distracting him from his goals.

This sort of attention was nerve-wracking. Even beyond what he got from Berserker.

"Everyone, please calm down!" The radio shouted, trying to get through to the eager appliances around them. "Master needs to focus on his work! How can you all call yourselves tools of our Master if you get in his way?"

Shirou wanted to say something to dissuade that line of thought, but he wasn't able to bring up enough energy to reply to that as another copy began to painfully form in his hands. A new river of fire coursed through his veins as he felt the night air brush along his fevered body.

He needed more time.

He prayed that Berserker started the last part of his plan soon.

* * *

><p>Officers came storming up to the building. Their hand held radios spat static as they communicated the results of the officers that had gone after the suspect.<p>

"She's gone. We can't find her anywhere!" The radios spat as they stormed up to the door. "We're fanning out at the moment to try and find her."

Taiga Fujimura had left Ayaka behind to stand by the entrance. She knew she had little recourse against the number of men that were approaching, but the woman shook her head as she tried to slow them down anyway.

"Wait, should you be going in? What about the girl?" She asked.

"Lost track of them." One of the officers began, even as his fellows moved to set up a door buster. He saw the way the woman tensed up and shook his head. "However, it has been nearly an hour. We have to go in. We won't harm your son, ma'am. "

"Of course you won't." Taiga hissed. "If he does, you're in trouble."

The office blinked in response, but said nothing as he let the woman quietly stew - choosing to glance at the door to see the progress of his team. The men gave him a nod of readiness.

The man raised a hand.

Taiga flinched at his side as they slammed the steel device up against the door with a loud clang. The door frame trembled as the men pulled back for one more attempt at breaking through.

The door frame kept vibrating. The noise it began to emit began to grow higher in pitch. The group slammed their hands against their ears to try and muffle the ringing noises, but even as they began to pull back the noise simply increased.

Sparks of electricity raced along the door. The streaks of energy sizzled in the air, making their noses twitch as the shrieking stopped.

This was only the beginning, though. Before their shocked eyes, faint blue lights began to waft out of the building itself. A police officer stumbled and fell on their rear as angry red vein-like lines appeared on the building.

Electricity surged along the surfaces of the building, noisily following the paths of those lines. Inside the building, the lights in the hallways wildly flickered on and off. The faint blue aura around the building began to swell as the ground shook. The tremor was brief, but had enough force to knock down the rest of the standing adults to their backs.

"Wha-"

A gust of wind radiated outwards from the building as the light glew brightly. At the roof of the building, the thick blue aura suddenly swelled upwards. The tower of blue and red light almost looked like it was going to spill over onto them like a wave, framed by the silver moon. At the peak of its upwards motion, the light split off and flew off in four cardinal directions. The stunned group stared as they could faintly see the light poles flash and explode as they were overwhelmed.

An eerie silence descended on the area.

Taiga was the first to shake herself out of the trace she had fallen into when she saw the doors to the school swing open on their own. Leaping to her feet, she began to run to the entrance.

"Wait!" An officer shouted for her, but she didn't care to wait. Her gaze was focused as she saw a shadowy figure approach them.

Her smile was bright enough to light up the night when she saw a haggard looking Shirou.

The boy smiled at her.

Taiga smothered the smaller boy in her chest. He wildly muffled his words into her breast, shaking his arms as he tried to break free, but the woman merely tightened her hold.

He was okay, that was all that mattered now.

* * *

><p>An inferno raged in front of Shinji Matou's eyes. The bag he was clutching dropped from numb fingers. He didn't even pay attention as the groceries rolled onto the dirty street. The sight of the Emiya home burning down imprinted himself on his eyes.<p>

The firetrucks spraying water at the burning building simply added the surreality of the situation.

"Stay away, young man!" Shinji's horror was broken by the voice of Shirou's neighbor, a middle aged man. The newcomer was approaching him from the other side of the street, gesturing for him to follow. Shinji blankly followed, listening as the man continued. "My wife called the authorities as soon as we could. It seemed like a fire started in the shed and embers carried over to the main house."

"How'd it happen?" Shinji demanded, shaking out of his shock. But before the man's return answer came, he already knew - the boundary field had probably kept everyone from noticing until it fell with the house.

"The firefighters haven't talked to us yet." Shirou's neighbor urgently continued, voice pitching low. "Were Fujimura-san and Emiya-san with you?"

Shinji stupidly nodded, glancing over to the flames even as they were joined by the man's wife at the front door.

The man glanced at Shinji, looking relieved. "Thank goodness for small miracles."

Shinji grunted in anger.

Yeah, miracles.

* * *

><p>The matter obviously was troubling on multiple fronts for the authorities, but when Ayaka Sajyou let them know her sister was back home all along, they began to ease up on Shirou and Taiga. They let the latter know that they'd get in contact with her again, and reluctantly let the two of them head back home. The crowd they left behind at the school had increased in size thanks to the light show, if anything.<p>

Shirou strutted proudly forwards, silent at Taiga's side as the two of them ascended the hill taking them back home. He looked over at Taiga, but the woman was uncharacteristically quiet after she had begged and pleaded on his behalf to be allowed to go back home with her. Unsure of what to do, he said the first thing he thought of at the moment.

"I saved them." He began to smile. Taiga's eyes narrowed as he continued. "I'm a superhero like dad-ow!"

Taiga swatted Shirou smartly across the ear.

"Fuji-nee!" Shirou complained, more surprised than hurt thanks to his training up to now. "What was that for?"

Taiga swept around towards his front. Her dress and ponytail swayed as her eyes blazed, intimidating him as she grasped his shoulders in a firm grasp. The woman leaned down so they could stare at each other form the same level.

"You did a foolish thing, Shirou."

Shirou gaped at her like she had gone mad.

Taiga scowled at his reaction, expecting as much before the words had even come out of her mouth. "Didn't you think about what was going to happen?" She demanded. "What if they had kept you after that dog and pony show of yours? I think you're only temporarily off the hook because of what a production you made!"

"But-"

"What if there's more people like you, Shirou?" She shook him a bit. "You've practically broadcasted that something strange happened."

"We...we...we'll take care of it!" Shirou uneasily replied, suddenly looking conflicted. "They didn't find Berserker the first time!"

"We narrowed it down for them." Her expression softened when he saw the dismay in Shirou's face. "Tell me, why did you do this?"

"Huh?"

Taiga waited for a moment so Shirou could compose himself.

"You're a good boy." Taiga ruffled the boy's hair. "You won't misbehave except it's for a reason, right? Who did you help?"

"Ah..." Shirou, flustered at her words, trailed off weakly.

"We'll talk about it back home, okay?" Taiga stood back, taking Shirou's hand in hers. When he froze up, she gave him an assuring smile. "I need to tell you something too. I think we needed to talk about this for a long time now."

"Fuji-nee?"

"Come on."

The silence that descended on the two was more thoughtful as they headed home, hand in hand.

* * *

><p>The faint ringing of sirens greeted Taiga and Shirou as they arrived in their neighborhood. Shirou's eyes widened, as did Taiga's when both of the saw the firetrucks outside of his house.<p>

"Wait!" Taiga shouted, lunging for Shirou. The boy slipped out of her grasp as he raced ahead with Taiga a few steps behind.

Flashing red lights flashed in his eyes as he pushed past a crowd of his neighbors. A sea of arms and legs blocked him from his destination. The adults above him realized who was pushing their way through their midst; a few of them actively tried to hold him back.

But he was too stubborn.

The reward for his stubbornness was...

Shirou gasped, legs buckling as he sunk to his knees a few yards ahead of the crowd. The boy stared at the crumbling ashes of his home with blank eyes. Ladders were set up on the walls of the complex, each with a fireman pointing a nozzle at the blackened husk of his home.

Almost as if to spite him, a few embers flared back up into small fires.

His arrival hadn't gone unnoticed. Shinji Matou, being attended to by his next door neighbors, quickly fired something off at them before running up to Shirou.

"Emiya!"

Shirou's eyes faintly lit up.

"Shinji, you're alive!" He threw himself at his friend.

"Wha-ack!" Shinji coughed as the smaller boy threw his arms around her shoulders. "G-get off!" He stammered, blushing as the redhead tightened his hold.

"I thought you were dead!" Shirou emphasized, letting go of Shinji, almost inspecting him for injuries. Finding nothing, he pulled back to a reasonable distance.

Shinji forcibly calmed himself before Taiga made her way out of the crowd.

"Matou-kun!" Taiga began to rush towards him, but Shinji wildly shook his head, holding his hands up to ward the woman back.

Taiga silently stared.

Shinji's eyebrow twitched once, but he lowered his arms and let Taiga inspect him as well. He only spoke up when the older woman was satisfied.

"I'm fine!" Shinji emphasized, warily staring at the two just in case they tried to get touchy with him again. Seeing them silently prod him for more information, he continued. "I got here after this happened..." He awkwardly trailed off. "No one knows what happened."

Shirou stared at the ruins in confusion.

"I'm...sorry, Shirou." Shinji glanced at the crowd, feeling helpless. "Maybe I should have..."

"No, it isn't your fault." Taiga's hands squeezed into fists. She only continued when she was sure her anger wouldn't bleed into her words. "You did nothing wrong, Matou-kun."

What she had said to Shirou was already haunting her. Was there really an enemy after them now? So soon, at that?

Shinji grunted in response, expression falling as he looked over at Shirou.

"Shirou, what's wrong?"

"...I wonder how many of them were alive when the building burned down?" Shirou asked, eyes intense as he focused on the building.

Shinji blinked and looked over at Taiga. The woman shook her head, feeling just as lost.

Shirou closed his eyes. He remembered Berserker's earlier words about the refridgerator wanting to volunteer. When he opened his eyes again, they were dull as he spoke.

"I've seen people die. I always thought the most miserable death was one where you weren't even allowed to scream for acknowledgement when you died."

Neither could respond.

* * *

><p>"How is Shirou?" Raiga's voice was gravely with sleep as he spoke to his granddaughter through the phone. Taiga glanced over at the pair of boys sitting on the back of a firetruck, sitting close to each other and under the observation of a police officer.<p>

Taiga's anxiety lessened when she saw Shinji place a hand on Shirou's shoulder, squeezing it and drawing a wane smile from the redhead.

"He seems alright." Taiga's mind thoughtfully rolled the second word. "Seems..."

"Taiga?"

"...grandfather, he's always seemed alright, hasn't he?"

"What do you mean?" He answered her question with his own. Taiga frowned, not liking that the old man was beginning to slip back to his guarded demeanor.

"Grandfather, what would you do if I said I wanted to adopt him?"

Silence.

"That's not a very reassuring reaction." She dryly responded, clutching at the phone as she looked over at the ruins of the Emiya home.

"What are you thinking, Taiga?"

She still remembered being shown around by Shirou and Kiritsugu.

"I don't think he's alright at all."

"There's affairs in Fuyuki that we have have no right to meddle in." Raiga sounded defeated. "Please, we have to...

Taiga glanced back when she felt a tap on her shoulder. Glancing at a police officer, she gave the female officer a hopeful smile and gestured at the phone while silently mouthing an apology.

The officer grimaced and nodded. She gestured at a parked car fifteen yards away and casually started walking towards it. Taiga probably wouldn't have too much time before she was forced to go after the police officer to talk to them.

"Taiga..."

"I'm adopting him, grandfather. With your permission or not." She insisted. "I can't help him if things stay the same."

Raiga sighed on the other end of the line.

"...I'll get the paperwork ready." A smile could be heard in the old man's voice. "Bring him home, Taiga."

"Yes!"

* * *

><p>"I'm back!" Shinji shouted, uncaring of the late hour as he entered his house. The boy's irritation with what had happened colored his voice as he threw off his shoes. "Is there anything to eat?" He bellowed upstairs to Sakura.<p>

He only heard silence in response.

"Dammit. I'll just make my own food, then." The boy struggled to undo his uniform jacket, lazily throwing it over his shoulder as he walked deeper into the house. The silence of the house left him pensive, thinking about what he had been told by Taiga before leaving.

Someone was after Shirou. Probably even him. They had broken one of the rules of magecraft thanks to the two slip ups they had so far.

The timing of the fire had been suspicious enough that they had gotten Berserker to come with him part of the way. He thought the only reason that Shirou had let him go was because Shinji had confidentially told them that the field around his house had been crafted by his grandfather.

As much as he was afraid of the man, he knew that the field would keep him safe.

Shinji paused as he glanced at his jacket. Deciding to throw it in the hamper for now, he paused at the entrance to the wash room that was beneath the staircase. He didn't want to deal with stains on his school uniform.

And Sakura was going to wash his clothes tomorrow too, anyway.

He clucked his tongue disapprovingly when he saw the basket of clothing Sakura hadn't washed yet. The boy walked up to the basket and set his jacket on top of the heap. He began to turn to leave, but something odd caught his eye.

Part of Sakura's dress was dangling through the small holes on the side of the basket. On casual inspection, he could see a small dusty gray patch. Reaching down to it, he rubbed that part of the dress. His fingers came back with ash.

"Shinji?" Sakura's sudden call made the boy leap up. "Did you call me?" Her voice came from outside the laundry room.

The boy hurriedly put his coat on top of the basket and left.

"Yeah, make me dinner!" He demanded, hiding the niggling worm of doubt he was feeling in his heart.

* * *

><p>The pair of siblings silently watched an old movie on the television later that night. With school closed tomorrow for Shinji, he wasn't worried about staying up late, but he wasn't sure why his little sister was sitting next to him watching television too.<p>

"Did you already do your homework?" Sakura suddenly asked.

Shinji grunted.

The television showed a cowboy confidently strut out of a bar. He gave the bar owner, a woman in a low cut dress, a confident smile and wink.

"Shinji?" The younger girl pressed again.

Outside the bar, a velociraptor waited for the cowboy, with a saddle on it. The dinosaur briefly revealed its own razor sharp teeth, almost as if smiling at the cowboy. The cowboy swiftly mounted his steed before guiding it out of the town.

The dark room became even dimmer as the credits began to scroll.

"Yes, I did it already, are you happy?" He snapped, and glanced over at Sakura. The girl was intensely staring at him, her dark eyes seeming to drink in the minimal light glaring off the television.

Sakura stayed silent.

"Whatever." He shook his head. "You're acting weird. Go to bed." With that command, he stood up to head back to the library. "I'm going to study."

"Brother." Sakura plaintively called out to him. "What kind of person is Shirou Emiya?"

He ignored her question as he went to the study.

"Go to bed."

The girl sat in the darkness for a few moments before standing up and switching the television off.

"You're being used..."

* * *

><p>Shinji sighed as he poured through his books. Hidden in a corner of the room, he found the spare copy of the notes that he and Shirou had done together.<p>

"This will speed things up when we get everything back up." He muttered in relief. He'd have to see if they could make some sort of alarm system that'd alert them. Or maybe finally get that damn Berserker to pull her weight.

Maybe a field that electrocuted intruders? Mundane people had those for their dogs. They could use them on intruders too!

"Then let's see them try to mess with us." He muttered, eyes narrowing in thought. The boy took a seat at his usual spot and flipped open the book.

The page was blank.

Shinji choked, eyes bugging out as he stared at the white page. Frightened, he flipped to another page.

Blank again.

"What kind of bullshit is this?" He roared, knocking his chair to the ground as he leapt to his feet. The boy angrily began to flip through the pages. "This isn't right!"

Flip.

"Where..."

Flip.

"Is..."

The paper crumbled with the force he was grasping it.

"It!"

His entire body froze in place as he accidentally tore a page in his frantic search. Shinji stared at the innocous page in shock. The words had returned to the torn up segment of the page. He desperately glanced back at the book, but it was as blank as ever.

The boy began to tremble.

"S-sakura..."

An intense pain began to hammer his brain.

"...where was she tonight?"

Pressure began to build behind his eyes as he raised his hand. His fingertips were still holding a faint stain by the ash from earlier.

No other magus could enter the Matou home unless allowed.

Shinji's breath hitched.

What kind of person is Shirou Emiya?

"Y-you're..." A manic laugh bubbled out of Shinji's lips as he got to the end of the book.

Shinji roared like a wounded beast as he ran away from the study. The book he left abandoned behind him continued to display its information. But the only line that Shinji saw was the last one, written on the back cover.

"I'll stop them. Once and for all. Grandfather won't have to know. You won't die like Kariya. I promise."

The book swiftly caught aflame, burning itself out into ash quickly enough to prevent any more damage than a charred spot of carpet.

* * *

><p>Reinforcement was difficult for Sakura Matou. Her body, designed to be a tool of the Matou, only could reliably 'take' from the world. Even enhancing herself too much meant awakening the monsters inside her and having them break the power.<p>

Then again, hypnosis had been something that she would've never dreamt of using on others either. It was a disgusting tool of magi in general. The less abilities she had, the more she could differentiate herself from her grandfather.

It was infuriating just how weak she really was, now that the chips were down and she just needed the most basic abilities of magi.

Sakura briefly paused when she felt the crest worms within her body stir. She took a seat on the doorstep of a closed shop two miles away from her home. While she waited for them to calm down, she began to consider her situation.

The shame she had been holding back flooded her. She wished that fire hadn't spread, but if that was what it took, she would've burnt down the entirety of Shirou Emiya's home again.

But it hadn't ended.

Once she saw Shinji's stubbornness she knew she had no other recourse. The seductive thought of turning her hypnosis on Shinji appeared again. She could easily go back and catch the boy. He had probably already begun his own hunt.

A shiver ran down her spine. She forcibly ignore that option. She couldn't turn on him. Not like that.

So there was just one more thing she could do.

Sakura Matou stood up. Reaching into the pocket of her jeans, she took out a folded paper. Drawn on it was the summoning circle that Shinji and Shirou Emiya had created.

"If I summon...I wonder what sort of Servant I'll get?" She mused outloud. Her eyes began to tear up. "Probably something that matches my personality - a true monster."

* * *

><p>Kirei Kotomine glanced out the window of his private office towards the graveyard next to the church. A smile graced his lips when he found the grave of Kiritsugu Emiya. It had been such a pleasure to see the guardian of the man's estate choose to bury him in this land.<p>

"Pity his heir is so pathetic." He sighed, feeling a bit of disappointment.

A knocking at his door interrupted his thoughts.

"Enter."

The door swung open, revealing a woman in a blue jacket with a furred color, white blouse and daisy dukes. She had her hair pulled up in a high ponytail.

Her reflection, which Kirei was following through with the window, smiled and waved at him.

"I have my things set up, Father." The woman's red eyes twinkled. "Thank you for calling for us when you realized what you discovered."

Kirei nodded, turning to face the newcomer.

"I've worked with your family before. They've always been good at keeping secrets."

The implication was left unsaid.

"Shall we go to the site of that school and investigate now?"

Kirei smirked. "You're rather eager, aren't you Misaya?"

Her look turned greedy as she gazed at the sealed mace. The glass box that maintained its existence seperately from the Hero that had summoned it was practically wrapped with seals.

"Of course, Father Kotomine. We of the Reiroukan family would love to study a Noble Phantasm. Especially that one." The woman pulled her hands out of her jacket, casually rolling a yoyo between her hands in an obvious habit. "The knowledge we'd gain would be enough for us to upstage the main family once and for all."

Kirei tensed as he felt the etherlite strings tethering the yoyo.

"Please put that away, Misaya." The priest ordered. "Or I'll ask an Eltnam to help me instead." He spun to face her, eyes narrowed. "Do you want the main family to gain yet another advantage?"

Misaya looked like she was about to press her luck. After a tense silence she tucked the mystic code back into her pocket. The alchemist held up her hands, affecting an innocent expression.

"Good, then let's go." Kirei ordered, walking out of the office.

Misaya eagerly gazed at the Noble Phantasm for a few more moments before she followed after Kirei. She couldn't let herself mess up in front of the priest again. She had to show her family's worth to him again.

Soon, she would own Maiden's Chastity.

If things went well, maybe even Frankenstein's Monster.

* * *

><p>Conceptual Arc - End<p> 


	9. Interlude 1

Fate/Stay Night and its spin offs are properties of Type-Moon, Nitroplus, and Image Epoch. All additional references belong to their respective companies.

Interlude - Breakdown

* * *

><p>Something is wrong with me.<p>

My head is aching. It's too hot. Feels like I'm on fire. Sweat drips down my back.

The softest noises strike me like a jackhammer. My breath, wild and coming out more rapidly than I think is healthy, is grating on my nerves. My fingers curl in time with each sharp, high pitched whine coming out of my dry, cracked lips.

I briefly envision Sakura making those noises.

My lips are moistened by the tip of my tongue as my fist clenches to another Sakura-whine.

At that moment, my body abandons me. My feet do, at any rate. They had been racing so far ahead of me that I find myself stumbling yet again for the night.

This time, I can't quite regain my balance in time.

"SAKURA!" That hateful word spills from my lips, hissed out as an exclamation as I flop onto the ground. My body answers the cry, or my clothing does at any rate. A low, thick sounding tearing sound is all I hear before I feel my shoulder twitch as a piercing pain sets in.

Fresh air rushes in to cool my body from the rip on my shirt sleeve.

I lie there for a moment, simply breathing.

Anyone who could come across me at the moment probably would get a laugh. Like a beached whale, I twitch a little to test my shoulder. My breath comes out in a quiet gasp of relief when the sharp paint fades away to a more familiar throbbing of overworked muscles. I can work with this type of pain.

It isn't something that can stop me.

* * *

><p>I don't know where I am.<p>

Another garbage can goes skidding down the alley as I throw it with all my might towards the deep shadows. My ears have long since gotten used to the sounds of the cans uselessly grinding itself away against stone so I turn away. I lower my arms to my sides, the slow burn throbbing in my muscles reminding me that I hadn't stopped since hours ago.

I don't care.

I need to find her.

A patrol officer's flashlight is further down the street. The neighborhood I was looking through is already unsteadily coming back to life. More windows light up as I catch the movements of curtains being drawn open.

It must be the most fucking fantastic thing they've experienced in their shitty days.

I wonder how they'd like it if their homes fucking burned down? Would that be fantastic too? They'd probably do sing songs and gather around the big old campfire if the police chasing me makes them look out their windows.

Hell, maybe they did that eight years ago?

Everyone gathers the kids and wanders on over to the district as it burns to the ground. Fun for all the family. Just don't get too close to the bodies, kids. You don't want to stain your clothes.

Another flashlight goes on further ahead.

They're trying to box me in, it seems.

If I could, I'd laugh at their retarded ploy, but my throat is clenched too tightly. Only a guttural groan can escape me at the moment. For a moment the heat that was crawling up my neck recedes, but all it brings is the terrible awareness of my actions.

My feet start carrying me down a side street. I think I might break a tooth if I clench my jaw any harder, but the brief jolt of pain racing up to my brain from my mouth is enough to cause the tingling haze on my scalp to sink back in.

I don't want to think yet.

The officers, or maybe just a new one, suddenly shout behind me. Meaningless sounds to me, really. Why should I care about what they want?

I just keep running.

By the time I lose them, my legs are aching, but my arms are feeling better.

The neighborhood looks familiar, though...

My shadow stretches ahead of me, teased out to its full length by the light of the sinking moon. It silently observes my grim expression as I head back home. The door is still open like it had been when I threw it open earlier.

I find my face splitting as my lips curl downward.

She isn't home.

She would have closed the door.

Oh...

Thinking about her was a mista-

* * *

><p>The sound of glass shattering shakes me out of my reverie.<p>

I placidly stare at Sakura's book as it soars out into the night with sparkling bits of glass. Hints of red are still clinging to my vision as I look listlessly around her bedroom. One of grandfather's artifacts, some kind of mirror, is broken on the ground.

The wallpaper is peppered with rips and fresh blood.

"Ah..."

The word just dribbles out of my lips as I gaze down. The carpet and my hand are a mess, and a bloody mirror shard is the source of both. I reach up to the sleeve uselessly flopping down my shirt and rip it off with a tug. I look back up to gaze at the room.

It still isn't enough.

I start wrapping my hand as I press myself up against her bookcase, toppling it over.

Why does she get a home? She was a failure that was thrown away by her real family.

My feet, clad in tennis shoes, slam into her dresser mirrors.

Why does she get attention from grandfather? Just having circuits meant nothing.

More of Sakura's things go flying out of the window.

Why?

I grab the bloody shard again.

_Why?_

Her dresses are torn to shreds.

Books are meticulously ripped apart. The shard I'm holding eventually breaks as I finish stabbing another cover. My breathing is wild as I hunch over a pile of books in the center of the ruined bedroom, shoulders hitching.

"Why?!"

My head feels heavy as I shout. I see myself reflected back through the bit of glass left on Sakura's dresser.

I looked like a fun house mirror version of myself. A pallor is cast over my expression, shining in the flickering light of the broken bulb. My hair is matted to my head by sweat. Most of my face is purpling up with bruises.

I was a joke to her, wasn't I?

The thought settled down into my gut with finality. At that moment I feel something unclench, flooding me with ice. It flows through my veins as the haze that had been crawling up my neck all night cleared away - blown away by the thought.

I stand up and walk over to the overturned dresser. The joke before my eyes continues to stare back at me until I shatter the last bit of glass with a final kick.

A joke, huh?

* * *

><p>The book in front of my eyes has words on it. Words that I had read over and over a thousand times, to the point I had memorized them by heart. It was enough to let me keep them, even now.<p>

She failed.

The idea makes me smile, but it goes away with the next thought.

She failed, but she knows everything now.

While I reverently set the book I can read down to the side, I throw another three useless books away. Their contents, nothing but blank pages, join the growing pile I've been making in the center of Grandfather's library.

Exhaustion is setting in, but I can't let myself fall now.

She wanted to kill Shirou. I'm just a joke to her, so she only sealed away the things she knew I'd never be able to get to work on my own, but Shirou is the legitimate thing. The things we had worked on together actually had results.

Results which, born from Matou magic, had weakened it.

I was so stupid.

I had thought I was the only one who cared, but Sakura was the heir now. She obviously felt the magic change for the last few months. No wonder that bitch had gone along with me to Shirou's house. She was just trying to track the source down.

And destroy it.

I finally feel the rush of satisfaction when I find an old map of Fuyuki. It spreads before me, indicating all the major points of power in the city.

Of course she'd do that. Any magus worth their circuits would want the power of a Servant class familiar, but Sakura wasn't Shirou. She didn't have the abilities that would let him create that efficient summoning circle in the first place.

She did have access to the power of the Matou, though.

I gazed upon the only real choice on the map.

* * *

><p>The steps of Ryuudou Temple stretch upwards into the darkness of the mountain. My bike is useless to me, so I kick it off to the side. The further I climb, the quicker my heart beats.<p>

Magic is in the air.

Out of the four major foci of leylines in Fuyuki, Tohsaka Manor was out by default. They had been the ones to cast Sakura out of paradise, after all. I sincerely doubt that the bitch would want to share her secrets with her old family.

I doubt family is high up on the list of her priorities, after all.

The church was also a laughable option. The little I knew about the Holy Grail War stated that the manager lived up there. A large part of me wishes she would have had the gall to dare it, though. I would have laughed in Grandfather's face when the peon of the Church brought her corpse back without the Matou crest.

Ah...

I really did laugh.

I move when I hear the cracking of leaves.

I find myself rolling off the steps heading up to Ryuudou and into cover. Moments later, a monk walks out of the forest clinging to the sides of the steps. A look of vague confusion is on his slack face as he looks around the area.

My lips remained tightly sealed as I resist the urge to fidget. The blank look in his eyes are disturbing and clearly a sign Sakura had passed through here. I clutched at the tree I'm crouching behind as a shiver runs down my spine. How many more of these charmed monks had I already blindly walked past?

Indecisive, I remain there long after the man stumbles down the steps, sleepily looking around.

There...couldn't have been any, right?

Either way, I rise to my feet. I have to get up to the top before dawn. Outside of the hour every magus hits their personal zenith of power, dawn was one of the more important times in the day. The shifting from one day to another was when the boundary between worlds was weakest.

"...Shinji."

Shit.

I spin around to see Sakura right behind me. Her eyes are terribly dark, fathomless in their intensity. Behind her is-!

My vision goes perpendicular.

The ground feels cold beneath me as Sakura approaches.

"It'll be better tomorrow..."

The coldness is beginning to sink into my worn out body.

It really was impossible for me, wasn't it?

Sakura kneels in front of me. The creature behind her quirks a head down at me. Both Master and Servant are radiating a terrible emotion. At that moment, I finally understand. All my understanding up to then was false!

Shirou, get away while you can!

Both Master and Servant were-!

"I promise." A cold smile, matched by the Servant, appears on Sakura's lips. "I'll protect you."

"Sh-irou..."

"Good night." The layer on ice over Sakura's face cracks, revealing profound loss. She begins to lean towards my body. "Big brother." She whispers into my ear, clutching at my shirt with a trembling grasp.

Everything goes-


	10. Interlude 2

Fate/Stay Night and its spin offs are properties of Type-Moon, Nitroplus, and Image Epoch. All additional references belong to their respective companies.

Interlude - Rebuild of Frankenstein

* * *

><p>The lightning shall provide the massive amounts of electricity needed to grant life upon my creation.<p>

My equipment has been designed with multiple redundancies and fail safes. My former master had warned me about how lighting, upon striking the tower, would course towards the ground through the least resistive path. I have wrested control of this path by laying down metallic wiring overlaid with enough insulation to hopefully keep the circuit whole.

Any excess power shall be dumped onto dummy modules, which the main controller shall detach from the system, protecting it from harm. My previous experiments have proven useful in devising the ideal uncoupling method to guarantee a clean detachment and prevent unpredictable lightning arcs.

This ought to prevent the excess energy from burning my creation alive. Again.

The tower has become a new life form, a beast entirely devoted to granting true life to my magnum opus. Miles of tubing and conductors work to infuse precious nutrients into the shrouded creature, the centerpiece of this laboratory.

I can see my excited breath in the chill air. It is below freezing, and frostbite will surely damage the flesh. No matter, so long as the brain is preserved. This chill, along with my nutrient solution, shall suffice in keeping it safe.

Flesh is replaceable. Not so the soul.

She is a recent subject, not too long departed from the living. Unfortunately, acquisition had been less than fortuitous, and she incurred some minor damage. Still, it has afforded me the opportunity to improve upon the base design. In her rebirth, she will be something more. Why limit her with human frailties?

I somewhat regret the loss of the other two, I am sure they would have made fine specimens should this attempt prove fruitful. No matter, what is done is done, and one must forge on no matter the setbacks.

All the requirements are met.

Before the promised time come, I must be absolutely sure everything is ready. I sweep across the laboratory, checking and double-checking each flask, revising each formula, securing every connection. The cocktail of elixirs and tinctures, crafted by my own hand and mind, oozes into my creation hidden under the covers.

My hand reaches out, throwing the blanket off.

Warmth fills me as I gaze down at my creation.

The pale face of the red-haired girl gives the appearance of peaceful sleep. My hand hand reaches down, softly brushing my fingers along her forehead. The sharp burn of formaldehyde masking sickly-sweet decay assaults me, but I only have a faint smile for the familiar scent. The skull aperture required to mount the Galvanic system has and will require careful treatment in the foreseeable future, but time and life shall endeavor to repair and adapt to the necessary damage.

"Yes..." I whisper as my fingers trailed down to tweak the girl's nose in a bit of whimsy. "Soon you will be back. You will shine like a diamond, little Claire."

Thunder boomed in the distance.

I grin as I switch on the device.

One second.

Two.

Three.

Did my pr-!

A flash of light numbs my vision as lightning strikes the spire, shaking the entire building to the very foundations. The force of the blow was enough to cause me to fall and nearly crack my head open, but I persevered. Worse was the smell, though! A combination of ozone and sizzling flesh fills my lungs, soon replaced by the noxious and deadly scent of the compound suffused into my creation.

The World was trying to destroy another of my works, but I would have none of it!

Half-blind, I stumble back to the main control console. Behind me, I could hear the worrying crash of stone as another mighty thunderbolt strikes the tower. This time, I feel the thunderclap deep within my own body, as if the heavy layers of protective clothing were mere paper.

Metal begins to shriek as the tower vibrates.

I only have a few moments left.

Risking permanent blindness, I open my eyes. Half of the laboratory is in flames at this point. Parts of the walls have collapsed. Exposed wiring, taxed beyond capacity, angrily shower the room with sparks.

In the center of my lab, my creation is bombarded with the writhing tendrils of electricity emanating from the brass and copper coils meant to collect diffused lightning. In my fervor, I had utterly failed to dimension the sheer devastating might of multiple lightning bolts, foolishly confident in its unlikeliness. I discard caution once I spot the main switch, diving for it, pointedly ignoring the sight of my creation writhing under an unearthly aura.

The World growls a warning - heavens tremble with another booming clap of thunder.

I slam the lever down, forcibly shutting the system off. The top of the tower collapses on itself as I hear the explosive charges destroy the collector system. Nature attempts to spite me one more time, lashing out with a bolt of lightning, but my eyes have clenched shut.

Yet its dazzle sends me sprawling. Pitiful groans escape me as I lie there, hearing the crackling flames grow closer to me. I like still even though I can feel the heat penetrating through my protective suit.

Intellectually, I know I must escape before the hungry flames consume me.

But I'm tired.

With most of my senses muffled for now, my sense of smell is hypersensitive, yet I can no longer detect the scent of burning flesh. Claire is gone now. Not even the acrid scent of the preservatives remains.

Yet another failure.

Worse than that...

The World had very nearly ended me as well.

I know better than anyone else just what my system is capable of doing. To have caught so many lightning bolts, one after the other? That was a statistical improbability bordering on the obscene. It was deliberate sabotage.

The World was out to get me.

"Doctor!" A voice suddenly shouted. Rocks fall as something pushes its way closer to my laboratory. "Doctor, answer me!"

My body twitches as the melodic voice shouts out again.

Ah...

Right, I can't let myself die quite yet, can I?

I open my eyes in time to see the door to my lab shatter. A delicate fist had just punched its way through with disturbing casualness. A red haired woman - no, more of a girl, the girl I done all this for, stalked into the laboratory.

Her piercing gaze, like that of a lioness, sweeps across the room. She only spared a brief glance towards the table that had Claire on it, wrinkling her pert nose at the ash piles that remained, and turned towards me.

"Ah!" She smiled, relief clear on her expression. The woman focused her mismatched eyes on me as she moved through the inferno with no concern. "What a lazy doctor you are."

"I did not 'nap' out of my own free will." I snap back at the infuriating woman.

"Then please don't take naps when you fail, alright?"

I still need to do something for this child.

"Just get over here. We have to leave before we are found out again."

"Of course, Victor~"

Before her time runs out.


	11. Chapter 9

Fate/Stay Night and its spin offs are properties of Type-Moon, Nitroplus, and Image Epoch. All additional references belong to their respective companies.

Chapter 9: Destroy, Rebuild, Destroy

* * *

><p><em>In order to gain something of value, another must be lost.<em>

The peak of the mountain, several hundred miles away from Fuyuki, was crested with thick cloud cover. All around it were thick forests, signs of lush life.

_This is one of the rules that magecraft is beholden to. No matter how much I rage against the heavens, even I understand that I must make the necessary sacrifices to take what I want._

A modestly sized building stood at the base of this mountain. The home was kept serviceable by a small group hired on from the local towns. The three current residents looked up when the door opened.

_However, this does not make the bitter truth any easier to swallow..._

Zouken Matou, flanked by a stony faced driver, entered the home with casual ease. The maid who was closest to the entrance nearly fumbled and nearly fell into the portrait she was carefully dusting. It portrayed an attractive man with a harsh expression and rich dark hair.

"Master Zolgen, g-good evening!" She curtsied.

Zouken felt a sneer coming on, but he held back, merely nodding at the woman. The other two servants fell in line as they moved to greet him, spouting platitudes about his sudden arrival.

_Especially since I must sacrifice the one resource I have precious little of remaining._

"Events have conspired against me as of late. I wished to take a moment to take in the country's fresh air before my schedule filled up." The ancient man told his staff, having tapped his cane harder than necessary to get the point across."I shall be staying here for a week."

"Of course, Master!"

_I must sacrifice my time._

"Prepare my dinner." He glanced over at one of the butlers. A frown came to his lips naturally. "You will come with me tomorrow to survey the land." It galled the magus that he had to make this much of an attempt at lip service at normality, but he couldn't risk using his magecraft now.

Not until he completed the ceremony to strengthen the foundation of Makiri in Japan.

"Of course, sir!" The man nodded, eager to prove himself to the employer that spontaneously dropped in on the area.

"Good," Zouken sneered. "At least it's good to see I pay enough to at least get some measure of enthusiasm."

The man blanched, glancing down.

"I...I'll go help the other's sir!"

Left alone with only his driver, who had stayed motionless this entire time, Zouken glanced at the man. The man, true to his nature as familiar, merely quirked his head at the magus thoughtlessly.

"Come back in a week." The magus told the creature. "Keep an eye on Sakura. Before I left "I" was getting strange impressions from her. If she's in danger, move in and protect her, no matter what, do you understand?" Even now, so far away from Fuyuki and the heart worm inside Sakura, he was getting faint impressions of raging emotions.

What could have set her off? Especially after so long?

The familiar nodded in agreement. A bit of the man's cheek pulsed unnaturally, making Zouken smile a bit as he turned and headed out of the home. The ancient magus hobbled after the man, watching him mechanically march towards the car and then drive away.

_If only magecraft was more efficient. I would have long ago gotten what I wanted._ Zouken thought whimsically. _Perhaps I could have even given those two children what they wanted?_

Zouken snorted, shaking his head at his sentimentalism.

These ceremonies were needed, if only to keep himself alive. If the magic foundation of his art failed, his entire existence would collapse with it.

_Still..._

Even if it was needed, it disgusted the man to have to go through these rituals. All it did was remind Zouken of the days that his people wandered around with nothing to their names. Nothing but nomadic scum.

And so, for the foreseeable future, Zouken Matou wholeheartedly took back the discarded mantle of 'Makiri Zolgen'.

* * *

><p>Shirou Emiya had been a victim of a great many tragedies throughout his life. He had been one of the few, if unknown, survivors of the Great Fuyuki Fire. The boy who had been from that hell by his magus father then had to stand back and helplessly watch as Kiritsugu Emiya died right by his side. Both of these memories were things that had shaped him into the person he was to this day.<p>

But...

"Are you okay, Shirou?" Taiga Fujimura pulled the boy out of his quiet musing. Her expression looked a little bit tired as she stared down into his eyes.

"Is this alright?" He wondered.

His home had just been destroyed...

"It's okay." Taiga softly smiled. "We're going to be living together from now on, right?"

"That's not what I mean, though!"

Everything had been reduced to ashes...

"You shouldn't look so serious." She tried to lighten her tone of voice. "There's just some things we need to replace, you know!"

Shirou glared.

Taiga sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Don't be such a boy, Shirou."

But ultimately, the greatest tragedy about all this was...

"Why are you dragging me into this aisle?!" Shirou cried, throwing his arms up in frustration. He nearly knocked over a cardboard cut out on the side, causing him to yelp and attempt to catch it. It was an act of utter futility though.

Several pill cases and disturbingly bright packages for feminine health care products spilled.

"Well, I have to train you so you're not so shy around girls now." Taiga drawled, lightly swaying from side to side as the cherry boy rapidly collected the few things that had been knocked over. "It's for your own good, really." She insisted, to his glare.

"Why?!" Shirou's nostrils flared, eyes narrowing.

Taiga covered her mouth with the back of her hand, glancing upwards in supplication.

Shirou, despite himself, leaned forwards curiously.

"What do you think I am?!" Taiga suddenly roared like her namesake, practically thrusting her face against Shirou, dashing her cheek against his. "You're living with me now! So you're going to learn to act better around girls!"

"Waah!" He fell back.

"Now clean up so we can get back to my room! We still need to get you and that... that girl some air mattresses!" Taiga took a step towards the boy, waving her the dangerous product in her grip at the boy, drawing a flinch from him.

He immediately surrendered.

"Yes, yes! Just get that away from me!" Shirou grimaced, holding his hands up defensively and leaning away.

"Good boy!" Taiga chirped, beaming a sunny smile at Shirou. "You can be taught!"

The girl working the front of the convenience store barely held back a chuckle, glancing out the shop's large windows to distract herself from the squabbling pair.

* * *

><p>"Thank you for your patronage!" The voice of the salesgirl sounded absurdly cheerful to Shirou's sensitive ears. "Come again!"<p>

The glass door shut behind them.

"Aww, come on." Taiga leaned over, bumping her side against Shirou's shoulder. "Don't be so gloomy."

Shirou attempted to spite her anyway, walking ahead of her as he carried his share of the emergency supplies they needed. Taiga nibbled on her lower lip to fight back a smile as she bounced a little after him, her own arms laden with things too. The boy briefly attempted to walk faster than Taiga, but the older woman's legs were just too long for the shorter boy.

He still tried to make a good go of it for a few minutes, though.

Taiga laughed as she finally caught up.

"Fine." Shirou finally grudgingly allowed, slowing down. Taiga flashed him a wink as both of their paces synchronized. The boy raised his supplies to cover his face to hide his expression, only showing her his steely gaze.

Taiga resisted the urge to roll her eyes. A wicked gleam entered her eyes when she saw that they were about to approach a small cluster of college aged students, who were heading the opposite way. The older woman waited a few moments before they were in ear shot before...

"We should take a bath." Taiga casually said outloud. "I think skinship would stop you from making such fussy faces."

Shirou unsteadily wobbled, nearly slamming into a group of people that were walking past him. A few astonished looks and one jealous glare from the group later and Shirou was angrily whirling back on Taiga.

The woman looked so innocent that butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.

'She probably ate a bird, though.' Shirou darkly thought, making - to Taiga, at least - the ultimate in frowny faces.

Taiga certainly felt content enough.

"We have one in the area." Taiga decided to lay back on teasing the boy to distract him - and herself. Too much and it was just mean spirited. Best ease him into things. "I go there all the time to unwind!"

"Huh?" Shirou blinked at her, quirking his head. "You weren't just pulling my chain?"

"No, I was doing that too." Taiga shamelessly agreed. She vaguely gestured across the street with her chin. "See?"

Shirou indeed saw. The front of the bath house looked positively feudal. Like out of some long past era, a bamboo and rice paper entrance to a bath house spread out before him. It even had a bright blue curtain with an outrageously written greeting in the place of a door.

People in casual kimono were walking in and out of the building. A quick glance backwards made Shirou aware that the college students that he had nearly crashed into were wearing the same.

"Have I fallen back in time?" Shirou wondered.

"It's the best!" Taiga retorted with a smile. "Don't become a grumpy old man before your time."

"One of us probably needs to be mature, though."

Taiga staggered back, masterfully taking on the airs of a wounded woman. She slumped slightly in place, but kept her gaze up at the sky.

"My little Shirou can't be this snarky!"

Despite himself, Shirou found himself smiling.

Taiga joined him a split second later.

* * *

><p>A priest and an alchemist finished another job. The sound of a fire truck's wails could be heard faintly in the distance.<p>

"Is the boundary field up, Misaya?" The priest asked his companion. "I really don't want to explain this scene to anyone."

At his side and slightly behind him, a brunette with a long ponytail, a short skirt and thigh high boots was sitting astride of a dazed looking teenager.

"It's been done a while ago, Kirei. No one will see this." Misaya laughed, having finished fiddling with a golden hoop earring she was wearing. "The rest of the team has hunted down everyone from the scene as well." She finished her report with a smirk up at the priest.

"The results?" Kirei asked.

"We managed to get quite a few of the people at the school and the surrounding areas. They all saw a flash of light." Misaya smiled a little bit as she patted the boy clad in the Homurabara Middle School uniform she was sitting on. "It's alright, though. All their memories are now ..." She threw her arms out. "Poof! Gone!"

"The rest?"

"We're working on looking for them at the moment. We did find something interesting, though." The alchemist leaned towards Kirei. "Want to hear?"

Kirei flatly stared at her.

"Fine, be that way." Misaya held out two fingers as she light heartedly smiled. "There's two students on record there. Two special kids from ...get this, the Emiya and Matou families!" She wiggled her fingers for emphasis, grinding her hips into her seat.

The boy groaned in pain.

Kirei passively observed, unimpressed with her.

"Jealous?" Misaya idly tried to bait the man, outrageously batting her eyelashes at Kirei. "Not into older men, sorry."

Kirei considered her words for a few moments.

"Not into perpetuating the cliché, no."

"Oh, but I think I'm the wrong gender for that."

"Really?" Kirei wondered, a hint of dry disbelief in his tone. "I wouldn't have guessed."

Misaya smirked, nodding as she gave him the point.

"We will have to deal with the Matou." Kirei mumbled, offering Misaya a hand to help her up. The girl nodded at the older man in agreement. "Their heir should have been at the school, working on sealing away the memories of everyone involved. Such laziness cannot be allowed. "

Misaya eagerly watched as the man considered the other name she had provided.

"As for Emiya..." The priest began, glancing off towards the west. A thin, dark smile appeared on his face. "I'll personally...handle it."

"My, aren't we eager?" Misaya idly fanned herself. "And I thought you said you weren't going to perpetuate the myth? Can I watch?"

Kirei smirked.

The sound of a twig snapping sent both alchemist and priest spinning, reaching beneath their denim jacket and cassock.

A black bolt was launched simultaneously along with a spinning yellow top.

The attacks had been so fast that the animal didn't even get to properly whine before it passed away, pierced by both weapons.

Its head seperated from the rest of its body moments later, in some sort of sick formality.

"Tch." Misaya looked more annoyed than disgusted. "What an annoyance. This is going to take all night to clean." She lightly let her yoyo spin down the ground, revealing a length of bloody etherlite thread as the yoyo curled downwards.

Kirei merely narrowed his eyes, glancing off in the distance.

"Oi, you listening Kirei?"

The priest continued to intensely gaze away from Misaya.

"Feh." The alchemist threw her arms up in defeat. "Whatever. Go be a pretentious old man on your own, Kirei." She snarled over her shoulder at him as she stormed away to go help the other alchemists at the school.

* * *

><p><em>Get this brazen cow moving!<em> A cell phone gleamed as it angrily broadcasted its message to its ilk. _I will not have her destroy herself before I-JUST GET HER MOVING!_

_We're trying, we're trying!_ The toaster shouted back. Faint arcs of electricity raged from the countless appliances inside a large green sack into the body of a slim looking girl in white. _I still think we could have taken them, though! They're just humans, after all! Manaka and Ayaka were so frail that Master had us practically walk them back home!_

_I believe the Original One is right._ A coffee maker chipped in her own beliefs. _If I could, I would also throw myself to defend Master Shirou from all enemies! Ooh, the romance of it all, shielding your loved one with your body!_

_She's showing considerable resis-OW!_ A hand held calculator hissed as the flow of electricity funneling into the girl suddenly reversed and began flowing back into the sack. _Don't do that!_

_Ahaha! Tug of war! Tug of war!_ A floor buffer slung over on top of the sack chanted. _Let's go, team!_

Berserker raged even as countless minds like hers came down on top of her, forcing her to take another leap away from the man and girl she had heard making threats to her Shirou. If she could, she would be smashing all the splinters to pieces, but she was bombarded by one thought by the multitude of voices that were overpowering her.

The girl had mentioned a **team**.

Rationality trumped passions for once as Berserker was manipulated back to Shirou's side like a puppet.

* * *

><p>Shirou was able to somehow manage to keep his things from falling. He precariously balanced the bags with his feet, keeping them from spilling, and helped Taiga tie a knot on the towel she had thrown over her hair to dry it out.<p>

"Thanks Shirou." Taiga smiled at him, flushed from the hot bath. "You sure we couldn't stay longer?" She wondered.

"I wish we could." Surprisingly enough, he had wanted to linger in the bath a little longer than he should have. "But Berserker is going to get back home soon."

"Right, right." Taiga sighed, rubbing her fingers together. The woman brightened up. "Wait! We need to do something really quick!"

Shirou stared at Taiga in befuddlement as she dashed away, arms extended from her as she clipped a corner. He winced as Taiga angrily waved her right arm in pain where she had nicked it against the wall. She quickly noticed he was staring and she blushed, ducking out behind cover.

Taiga, zero. Building, one.

He shook his head, but refused to say anything. The boy decided to focus on their bags, tying a few together so he could take some more of Taiga's load after that nasty looking accident she had against the corner.

A few moments later Taiga popped up again from around the corner, all smiles. She quickly moved up towards him, leaning towards him and swaying back.

"...what is it?" Shirou wondered, anxiety creeping into his mellow tone. His tone made Taiga smile in delight.

"Noothing." Taiga dragged her word out, fidgeting in place.

"Okay, then." Shirou blinked, turning back to the bags. He felt, more than saw, the presence of his guardian loom besides him, but he refused to look up from where he was tying knots onto the bags.

"Don't be like that!" He heard the slipper she had been loaned by the bath house slap onto the floor. "At least look up at me!"

Shirou did so.

Taiga gave him a sunny smile, holding out a plastic bottle of milk towards him.

Shirou blinked and returned her smile.

"Oh hey, that'd hit the spot." He began to reach towards her, but Taiga ripped off the foil cover, threw back half, and handed the other half to him before he could pull his arm back. "Ick, backwash?!" The boy couldn't quite hide his dismay when the woman forced the drink in his hand.

"Hahah!" Taiga thrust her chest out proudly as she laughed. "No take backs now. You gotta drink it!"

Shirou's nose twitched.

Taiga intently stared.

"Pass."

"Oh come on!" Taiga threw her arms up in frustration. "I don't have germs!"

Shirou stayed quiet as he stood up, taking more bags with him as he calmly left.

Taiga quickly snagged up the bottle and followed after him.

"Hey, they don't grow money on trees, you know!"

"C'mooon!"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Just a little bit?"

"Stop trying. I just know the second I drink it you'll try and play the gross card."

"Like what?"

"'Now you have a little bit of me inside you, Shirou-kun! Huehuehuehue.'"

"See?"

"Lack of admission doesn't make it a confession."

Eight minutes later...

Taiga cheerfully threw open the door to her home.

"Welcome home!" She almost, but not quite, sloshed herself with the milk from the bottle she was still holding.

Shirou took in Taiga's proud look, then glanced past her into the apartment.

Taiga almost dropped the bottle she was holding in shock as Shirou's expression plummeted. The boy let go of his bags, letting them noisily crash into the ground. He rushed towards the older woman and embraced her. "W-what are you doing?!" She demanded, voice shrilly raised in embarrassment.

"Taiga-nee! Why didn't you tell me you live in a box! You could have stayed with me!"

"_...have you gone stupid?!_" The bright red woman clonked the boy on the top of the skull with the bottom of the bottle. Shirou stumbled away from her as she stepped back into her apartment, eyes focused on him intently despite the flush on her cheeks.

Shirou winced, rubbing his head.

"Have not!" He angrily declared, eyes fierce. To prove his point, he pointed into her apartment. "You don't even have a kitchen! No wonder you always stayed to eat with me." Everything was dawning perfectly for him now!

Beyond Shirou's finger was a room that looked completely reasonable to a flustered Taiga.

Shirou himself refused to let it lie, though.

"T-this isn't even four?" He paused, raising a finger to his lips. "It's four tatami, right?" Shirou looked at Taiga for clarification.

"Don't accuse me of living in a box; You don't even know what the right size is!" Taiga embarrassedly pulled Shirou into the apartment, slamming the door shut behind him the moment she started hearing shuffling next door.

The boy mournfully looked at their surroundings.

"Jeez..." Taiga rubbed her forehead. "Maybe I should have brought you by earlier, Your Lordship. Living in that giant mansion probably disassociated you from how the rest of us live." She snarked, frowning a little at him.

"B-but there isn't even a kitchen here..."

Taiga tried to look at her place with that knowledge in her mind.

"Oh..." The woman looked embarrassed. "It probably does look weird, doesn't it?" Before Shirou capitalized on her admission, she grabbed his face with her hands.

"What are you-?"

Taiga turned his head slighty to the side. Behind and to the side of a rather large wooden closet was a sliding door. Actually, now that he saw things from the inside, the entire room was built around the entrance. All the furniture was shoved closer towards the door, making it seem much smaller than it was at first glance.

"That..."

"It leads into a hallway." Taiga slowly explained, lightly patting Shirou's cheek. Like a small, slow child. "Which goes to the rest of my place."

Shirou's eyes were wide.

"Oh."

"Yes." Taiga gave him a flat stare. "Oh."

Shirou spun around the room, taking in his surroundings The room in the back was almost twice the size than the front room had been.

"Why haven't you moved in here?" He wondered, smiling over at Taiga. "It's amazing!"

Taiga leaned on the exit to the room, shrugging a little.

"I was saving it for something special..." She mysteriously answered. "Now, you're going to stay here." The woman firmly shook her head when Shirou flashed her an alarm glance. "Berserker stays with me. I won't be having hanky panky on my watch!"

"Who still says hanky panky...?"

Taiga's cheeks puffed up. "I do!" She shook a fist at him. "You got a problem with it?"

Shirou held up his hands, shaking his head.

"Great!" Taiga smiled. "Follow me!" She energetically led Shirou back into the hall. The open door leading to her room and the exit of the apartment was up ahead, but there were two doors, one on each side of the hall, in between both rooms.

Taiga grandly threw open the bathroom door. "Here is the toilet!" She shouted energetically.

Shirou stumbled.

"What are you saying?!" He blushed as he got up, stunned at Taiga. "Don't you have some class?!"

"I'm just calling it what it is!"

"But you're a girl!"

"Girls are allowed to lack class! Don't try and stuff me in a mold!"

"Is this why you never got to use the room in the back?!" Shirou demanded. "Does everyone run away in shame before the first night?!"

"Maaaaybeee?" Taiga offered with a sinister giggle. She saw Shirou's eyes narrow and shook her head. "Okay, how about Le Toilette, then? Does using another language satisfy your high class standards, Shirou?"

"...I don't even know what that means." Shirou admitted, his arms crossed in front of him as he stared away from her. "Probably something dumb, though."

Taiga laughed.

* * *

><p>It was a cycle of self abuse that neither party wished to break.<p>

Sakura refused to simply escape, no matter how much she was hurt. Already the new injury began to mat down her hair. Her hair looked slick in the light of the light posts they were passing. The girl's gait shortly became a series of wobbling lunges forwards.

Shinji would rather self-destruct than allow Sakura to best him.

The pair of siblings ran through the night.

Shinji Matou screamed, his voice carrying nothing but hatred for the girl racing ahead of him. His breath escaped him in ragged, choked gasps. In direct opposition, Sakura was eerily silent as she lead him through the streets of Fuyuki.

The frantic, breakneck speed the two siblings were pacing themselves through was a dead heat.

"Get back here, bitch!" He sobbed, swinging his arm for her. "Fix this!"

Sakura slowed half a step - just like all the other times that Shinji's screams rang out. It was enough to make Shinji draw teasingly close to her. His clawing hands brushed the edges of Sakura's short hair. Just when his hands curled around the locks of her hair.

Sakura's heart leapt to her throat. A brief memory flashed through her mind. Gnarled hands taking hold of her hair, pushing her face down.

In reaction to the blossoming terror, her magic circuits flared to life.

Again she shot forwards, but the supernatural speed that surged through her body betrayed her even as it prevented Shinji's attempt at reeling her in. For the first time in the last few minutes of the marathon run they had gone through, she made a noise. She gasped, the nerves in her scalp alight with pain as Shinji tore strands of hair, along with their roots, free from her head.

It was the third time his fingertips came back bloody.

Both siblings raced around a corner.

Only Sakura remained standing once both of them staggered around the bend. Shinji impotently screamed as his legs failed, dropping him to the ground. He thrashed and slapped at the ground as his numb legs flopped uselessly below him.

A cockroach skittered along the edges of his view, twitched its antenna at him, and raced away when the sound of footsteps brought him briefly out of his rage.

Sakura, sweetly smelling of cloying blood, returned to his side. She ignored his curses, which grew fouler and more explicit the closer she drew.

The girl, revealed in the light to have faint bruises beneath a dress tattered by a near miss earlier in the night with his hands, knelt by him. She silently endured his blows and only gently brushed his fists aside when she laid her hands down on his legs.

"It's okay." Sakura whispered, smiling through her pain. "I'll take it all."

His legs throbbed in renewed agony, making him choke and briefly freeze beneath her hands. The heat was forcibly pulled towards her delicate fingers, renewing his limbs even as Sakura trembled in repressed agony.

Shinji Matou expression turned murderous as he looked up at her. His hands rose up, shaking with emotion, and grasped her around the throat.

His hands refused to tighten.

The boy stared at his sister in shock, pupils shrinking slightly as his expression immediately cooled.

Sakura could only offer him a sad, tiny smile.

"Stay down, big brother." She whispered as she left, glancing back at him only once. "It'll be safer for you."

Moments later, the cockroach Shinji had seen before crawled out, curiosity driving it in his general direction. His hand heavily flopped down on it, crushing it and sending its pulped insides gushing out onto the sidewalk. The ooze clung to the back of his hand as he stared up at the skies with a flat expression.

Ten minutes later, the police were called as the neighbors heard a tormented scream. By the time the law enforcement made it, distracted as they were by the earlier closing of a school due to safety reasons, the area was empty.

They were shortly too busy to keep caring about the earliest report, though. A crop of sightings of a teenager rampaging through the neighborhoods, with an expression like a furious war god, had them much more immediately concerned.

* * *

><p>Shirou looked upon Taiga's home with an expression close to a religious experience. "You work?" He whispered, faux wonder in his tone.<p>

Taiga looked annoyed, pushing up a worn out black bandana that was drooping into her eyes. "Of course I do!" She waved a red marker at the boy, her intense expression shifted in a scowl in the span of a moment.

Shirou raised his hands in surrender, shifting around on the pillow that he lay on top. Taiga shook her head, moving the papers she had graded off to a corner of the table.

"Want to draw while big sis takes care of her adult obligations?" Taiga sweetly purred at Shirou, pointing at the spot she had vacated on her table. "Maybe we can hang it up in the kitchen?"

Shirou clamped his mouth shut.

Okay, she got him there.

"Sorry." He let his head droop. "It's just-"

Taiga cleared her throat. "No, it's okay. You're tense. It's understandable." She flashed him a smile when he looked up, and continued. "It'll just take a while, right? We probably should have done something like this a while ago..." She rolled her pen around in thought.

"T-that isn't right." He stammered.

"Because you're a magus?" Taiga guessed, making him look glum. "Well, cat is out of the bag now. What are we going to do now?"

Shirou thought. The idea that had been gnawing at his conscience the whole evening, the thought that had been causing him an excess of energy, finally came up.

"Those two girls know."

Taiga nodded, expression serious as she once again adjusted the black cloth to hold her hair up. "So, you're a wizard, Shirou. What are you going to do about me and them now?" She idly asked, leaning forwards.

Shirou didn't like how that sounded at all.

"Nothing!"

"Really?" Taiga wondered. "You and Shinji know all kinds of secrets. Isn't it dangerous to expose those kinds of things further than they should?"

Shirou exploded in motion, throwing the pillow he was resting against to the side as he shot up.

"What's gotten into you?!" He demanded, slapping his hands on the mat.

Taiga's face fell. "Grandfather knew your father was a magus. Kiritsugu didn't care about the traditional rules of magecraft at the end of his life, and his knowledge helped Grandfather secure his power base here in Fuyuki."

"That...that doesn't..." Shirou stammered, at a loss for words.

Taiga took no heed as she continued her confession. "Grandfather told me what you should have done to me and those two girls." She admitted to Shirou, making the boy stagger back.

"What...?" He gasped, staring at Taiga with a pale expression. "I would have never done that..."

"Grandfather trusts you, Shirou." The woman glanced down at the table, and her body only quivered once as she took a breath. Taiga looked up at the boy with an intense expression. "I trust you too. That's why I..." She paused for half a second, hands tightly clenched on the edges of the table. "Shirou, do you ...maybe, kinda...be a Fujimura?"

Shirou stared at her with incomprehension.

"Master!" Berserker phased through the doors to Taiga's apartment like a rampaging elephant. An aura of electricity clung tightly to her body and danced along the surface of her dress as she skid to a stop in the room.

Shirou glanced up at her like a lost puppy.

Taiga merely shifted in place, glanced at her briefly, and refocused on Shirou.

To Berserker, the tense atmosphere in the room was analyzed, found wanting, and immediately dismissed. She dropped the bag of appliances on her back, manifested into a solid form, and promptly tackled Shirou to the ground.

"Aah!"

Taiga frowned as Shirou went down with naught but a brief yelp to his defense.

"You're safe!" Berserker practically screamed, rubbing her face against his. "Thank goodness the priest didn't get to you!" She tightened her hold on Shirou, wrapping her seemingly delicate arms around him. "He must have gone for Shinji instead!" She cheerfully declared.

"What did you say?!" Shirou's shock was blown away by the icy touch of fear. Berserker ignored him, favoring instead to cuddle like she hadn't seen him in months. Even Shirou had his limits, though. An intense, sharp stare pierced Berserker as he contorted himself so they could lock gazes.

Berserker actually was amazed at how bright her Master's eyes seemed that moment.

Taiga, having moved to try and drag Berserker from Shirou before she continued her attempts to fuse into a new form of life with him, found herself surprised at how easily the girl gave way to her strength. The women fell back, their motion caused the bag to open to spill out one of the electronics within its depths.

A black cell phone with a shooting star strap bounced on the mat. Its surface cracked with faint electricity.

"Finally, the heroine gets her turn in the sun." The phone drawled, the voice coming from it sounding like deeper version of Berserker. "But it seems I might have shown a little bit early though, no?"

Shirou shot up to his feet. He was out of the door, closely followed by Berserker, before Taiga could even blink.

"Seems so." Taiga rubbed her head, closing her eyes in exhausation. "Bad timing might be some kind of disease that's going around."

"Quite." The cell phone dryly answered. "Well then, there's an incoming call from my old 'owner'. Do you possess enough wits to deal with her? She must be quite angry at my flight from her home along with the Vessel."

Taiga glanced down at the phone, looking anything but pleased.

"Oh, cut the bullshit. Just call her Berserker. Or whatever." She snarled, picking up the phone. The woman gave it a shake before she continued. "I'm pretty over mystical technobabble bullshit."

The phone laughed.

"Oh dear, is that the sound of someone who's -jilted-?"

On the other side of Fuyuki, Manaka Sajyou was forced to lean away from Ayaka's confiscated cell phone when a stream of verbal abuse came out from the speaker.

"Stop stealing from me!" Ayaka piteously wailed before she took it from her flailing sister.

"U-uh...i-is this a bad time?" Manaka timidly asked. "S-should I call back another time?"

The speaker on the other side of the line paused.

"Oh, son of a bi-" The call terminated.

Ayaka, observing her desolate sister from the slightly opened doorway, resisted the urge to clap her hands in thanks.

Karma did exist.

Except for fools and madmen.

* * *

><p>The sound of construction could be heard in the background.<p>

If it bothers any of the appliances inside the Emiya shed, they don't show any sign of it.

One of them, a television on a wheeled stand, rolls up into the center of a massive magical circle. Its dark screen flickers and comes back to life, showing a cherubic face of a pale albino girl with long silver hair and red eyes.

"Welcome back to the SCIENCE DOJO, a somewhat shady land of mystery and wonder!" The television twirls around as the girl's face on the screen bows. "While Master Tiger and Student Number One are hard at work building their lair, the mice will play, right?"

The appliances around the shed shuffle in place, rattling the shelves they were on. The thunderous sound came across like uproarious applause.

"It's been a while, hasn't it?" The television idly wondered. "Lots of us have come and gone in that time."

In the corner, a somewhat toasty looking refrigerator sadly opened and closed its door.

"Still, we all have to stay happy!" The screen panned back to show the girl on the television twirl in place, her surroundings revealed to be a black void. It cut away to show Shirou and Berserker racing through the streets of Fuyuki while the girl continued to speak over the television. "Our Master is still alive and well - so let's cheer him on from here!"

More thunderous applause rang out throughout the shed.

"Good luck Master!" The little girl appeared on the screen again. This time her happy smile shifted into a tight frown, ruby eyes glittering with hidden secrets. "You're going to need it."


	12. Chapter 10

Fate/Stay Night and its spin offs are properties of Type-Moon, Nitroplus, and Image Epoch. All additional references belong to their respective companies.

Chapter 10: Mockup

* * *

><p>The trip had taken much too long for Shirou's liking, but they were finally at their destination. Berserker's insistence on doubling back several times troubled the boy, though. What if something had already followed them?<p>

Those thoughts were put on hold, though.

Shirou beheld the Matou residence from the base of the hill. Large clouds were moving over head, seemingly swirling above the building, but that had to just be his imagination.

'It looks like a haunted house.' He mused, old stories told to him by Taiga fluttering in his head.

The presence of the mansion seemed to overpower everything around it, as if trying to consume its surroundings. A strong breeze only added to its air, making skeletal trees on the property sway towards them like outstretched arms. Shirou had the feeling he would not like what he would see if he tried to analyze the Matou home.

The yard spanning the edge of the barrier to the house was immaculately clean and cared for. No different from Shirou's former home in that way.

Yet, as the boy hung at the edge of the bounded field, he sensed an atmosphere of darkness that seemed to hang over the property. As if whatever had settled on the land was antithesis of warmth and life.

"Master!" Berserker petulantly whined behind him. She shook her head, pawing at herself with a sour look on her face. "This feels disgusting!"

"...don' t take your clothes off!"

Berserker's smile fell.

"There's a time and place for that, and this isn't the time or the place."

Berserker lit up like a star.

'I'll just wait for the right time!' She thought to herself giddily.

'Still, I know what she means.' Something about the area made it feel like his skin was trying to crawl off his muscles. 'Is this what a real boundary field feels like?'

What could have set it off, though?

Shirou got his answer as soon as eyed the entrance. It was wide open, creaking loudly in the wind. Could they have been attacked?

Was Shinji in danger?

"Shinji!" Shirou shouted, his voice carrying across the yard. His brow creased in anxiety. "Answer me!"

"Master, I can go ahea-" Berserker began.

Shirou had shot off like an invisible starting pistol had gone off.

A split second layer, Berserker barreled ahead after him. "Wait for me! I don't like creepy places!" She panicked.

* * *

><p>"What happened to the boundary field around this place?" It had been only dumb luck that had seen him through the area, but he could feel the remnants of a barrier in place.<p>

Only the sense of an old, lonely home could be felt by him now that he was inside the mansion.

The floor creaked beneath his feet when Berserker joined Shirou. He turned back to check on Berserker.

"Are you going to be alright?" He asked, holding off on moving ahead when he saw how winded she looked.

Berserker gave him a tight smile, flushing a little as she moved next to him. "It's fine, Master." She tried to dismiss his concern.

Shirou frowned.

"You don't look fine."

Berserker pouted.

"I'll just need some prana later tonight." She tried to take his hand. "Just stay by me. Don't run away, okay? I need to keep you safe, okay?"

Shirou blinked, but allowed it after the earlier near disaster.

"...fine." Shirou reluctantly nodded. He led the way forwards. "But let's hurry, someone tore down the field around here." The boy couldn't quite keep the fear out of his voice, no matter what he did to mask it.

Berserker remained silent, looking around the first floor. Shadows seemed to breed down amongst the living room, stretching out from their nest to tentatively prod outside their domain. They danced amongst the humble lights. They were few in number, and far apart at that. Their best was just barely enough to keep the house from being plunged into shadows.

The sounds of a wooden covering slamming onto the windows outside occasionally added to the otherwise silent - tomb like air of the home.

'Is he really that important?' Berserker wondered, not for the first time. 'I wonder if Master would do the same for me...'

As Shirou and Berserker carefully picked through the area, a set of eyes watched them.

* * *

><p>"Master, look." Berserker pointed out a trail of papers near the foot of a staircase leading upstairs. "Is that a clue?" She wondered, perking up when Shirou nodded.<p>

"Or at the very least it's a start." He knelt down by the sheet.

Written on it was something that was both familiar and shockingly new. The method to invoke a spiritual summoning was engraved on the paper, but only the very basics. Basics that he and Shinji hadn't had used before.

"Is this how it really works?" Behind Shirou, Berserker was trying to lean on the tip of her metallic legs to lean over his shoulder to read the sheet. "Then...how'd we manage to summon?"

A catalyst had been needed, at least for this style of summons.

So what was it that it had taken?

"Let me see, Master!" She leaned up against his back, reaching over his shoulders with flailing hands. "Please?" She dragged out the syllables.

Having decided it wasn't anything important for his search for Shinji, Shirou handed the sheet over to Berserker, brushing other sheets asides as he tried to see if there were any clues in front of him. The girl gleefully held the sheet up to her face, fully eager to read what had been so interesting to her Master.

Berserker blinked.

Shirou continued brushing stray sheets of paper out of the way.

More moments passed.

Berserker quirked her head, turning the sheet at an angle.

Shirou frowned, giving up on the pile. Most of the papers in front of him were either too complex, or had things that simply had no relation to what was going on, at least as far as he was concerned. He rose to his feet and turned back towards Berserker.

...only to see her sadly staring at him.

"I can't read." Berserker murmured, holding the sheet out. "Read it for me, please?"

Shirou flinched back from her soulful stare.

* * *

><p>Upstairs in Sakura's room, a creature calmly moved through the bedroom. They could sense the pair that were slowly moving through the bottom floor, but paid little heed to them at the moment. Their Mother's order was absolute in their mind, so nothing would be done until their task was complete.<p>

In their arms, they gently put away a stuffed animal into a clear plastic case. Next to the one eyed giraffe was a book on cooking. The bedding that had been dumped out of the case lay ignored on the ground.

Having gathered up a few clothes, the figured moved towards the only other bedroom.

A faint spark of electricity shrouded the creature as its body moved through the walls like nothing at all.

Only the faint smell of ozone, which would disperse soon, would be all that hinted at its presence in their Mother's bedroom.

* * *

><p>Shirou barely managed to stop himself from knocking a hole in a wall.<p>

'Only a fading sense of magic left.' He mentally snarled. 'Whoever was here is long gone.'

He moved over towards a nearby wall, and leaned his head up against it. For a few moments, he simply supported himself up against the wall while he listened to the shrill sound of the wind entering the home from the front door.

"Master?" Berserker anxiously called out, drawing him away from his pity party. When she had his tired gaze, she hesitantly smiled. "Shinji is a very persistent boy! I don't think you can keep him down like this."

Shirou wanly smiled.

"Maybe we can explore the neighborhood? He might have left something we can track him with?"

The girl's offer made him pull away from the wall.

"Right..." On further consideration, the boy slapped his cheeks to get some color back. "Yeah, but let's try the second floor first."

Berserker nodded in agreement.

Shirou moved past the girl towards the staircase they had passed. She waited until he was starting to ascend the steps before she gave the Matou home a quick look.

"This place is creepy." She muttered dismissively. "How do they get anything done without more lights?"

Berserker would've tripped over three coils back in the lab by this point.

"Don't be so rude." Shirou chided from the stairs. Berserker moved to join him as he continued. "Not all magi approve of modern conveniences." He glanced down at a small table at the foot of the stairs. On it, an old cream colored rotary phone stood. "Their grandfather probably already breaks out in hives just looking at that."

Berserker grimaced. She made a vow to be thankful for the Master she had. Just the thought of being someone by someone afraid of technology made her slightly uncomfortable.

The telephone on the stand chose that moment to suddenly come to life with a powerful ring.

Shirou and Berserker froze in place as the phone rang two more times. The former quickly descended the steps to answer, but it was the latter that got to the phone first. She held up a hand towards Shirou to ward him away.

The middle schooler flashed Berserker a look of confusion, but it only lasted until he saw the faint wreath of electricity surrounding the phone.

"Another one?" He wondered.

Berserker solemnly nodded as she took the entire phone in hand. It continued ringing as she tried to figure out how to answer it. A quick gesture from Shirou's direction helped her figure it out, answering the insistent device.

"Hello?" Berserker wondered, pressing the receiver up against her ear as indicated. "Who is this?"

"Trollop, why did you leave me behind?!" A sharper version of Berserker's voice answered her. "I would have never found you too if that Fujimura woman hadn't given me the number for this house!" Her voice made Berserker wince. She attempted to pull away from the receiver, but the phone's voice was still loud enough to be heard by Shirou.

"Isn't that...that phone?" Shirou vaguely recalled seeing a cellphone before running out of Taiga's apartment. "It can talk?"

"Master!" The phone's voice was sappy, but it immediately turned aggressive on a dime as it addressed Berserker. "Trollop, turn me towards Master this instant!" The enraged voice immediately switched back to fawning. "Why'd you leave me behind? I was so ready to go with you on your grand quest!"

Berserker frowned in annoyance as she considered how much pressure would be needed to crush the device in her grip.

"Don't even try it, Trollop." The phone warned in dark voice. "Or things will get uncomfortable."

Berserker blinked.

"Yes, I can hear your thoughts."

"Uhm..." Shirou blinked, but suddenly realized something. "Is Taiga alright?" He wondered worriedly.

"Oh, her." The phone's voice cooled slightly. "She's fine, but she agreed to let me travel the network to see you." She brightened up as she cooed. "It's very important information. I bet Berserker hasn't even remembered about it, since she was so angry when we found out."

Shirou glanced at Berserker, who suddenly looked like she was on the spot. The latter fidgeted as she tried to recall.

"I doubt she'd forget...?" Shirou shrugged, voice trailing off into a question. He looked over at Berserker, who suddenly slumped in shame. "Well, okay then. Go ahead, Miss Phone." The boy quipped, trying his best not to make a bigger deal of things than possible.

Berserker blushed in embarrassment as the phone laughed.

"Kirei was the name of the priest who wanted to go after you and Shinji." The phone confided, whispering it like it was one of the secrets of life. "He was with this shamelessly dressed girl too. Showing off her thighs like some harlot. I'm surprised the priest didn't strike her down for offending his God. I certainly would have."

"Isn't that too mu-"

"Avoid her - she's probably diseased." The phone cut him off. "Trust me, Master."

Berserker nodded in agreement.

Shirou glanced between the phone and Berserker in wary suspicion. "Diseased, huh?" He mused, voice pitched in slight disbelief.

"I think we should focus more on Shinji." Berserker immediately spoke up. "Instead of a diseased girl that is no good at all."

"Yes." The phone readily agreed. "Let's go save Jinshi."

Shirou's eyebrow twitched.

* * *

><p>All preparations were complete. The plastic case that it had taken was filled with clothing and keepsakes that belonged to its Mother and her brother. Everything else was useless to Mother once she had gathered everything, so...<p>

That meant that the trio downstairs were now worthless.

It took a little bit of concentration, but the One that had been a magus in life came to the forefront. Howls of agony ripped through the creature's mind, but it ignored them. The creature was in command, and the many voices were subordinate to its will.

Father had taught it too well. It would not lose to a mere shade of a person.

A fog rose from the ground.

Tattered pieces of the boundary field around the Matou home began to flare back to life as the fog filled the gaps that it had torn on its way into the mansion. The sounds of buzzing insects reverberated inside the creature's head as the field began to power on, ready to destroy all intruders.

The creature took the case in its arms, and moved towards the window.

* * *

><p>Like poison that had seeped into a well, the fog rapidly spread once it sunk into the floor. Tendrils branched out, stretching out across the top floor and into the walls. It was child's play to soak the pillars that supported the entire building.<p>

Total saturation was completed within the blink of an eye.

The boundary field had been taken over.

The wood of the home began to rot from the inside out. The time span of the decay varied from section to section of the building, but it was rapid enough that a few rats could be seen escaping from beneath the floor boards of the bottom floor. Up on the roof top, an unlucky bird, which had been building its nest, was surprised as a small hole suddenly developed off to the side of the nest.

The bird quirked its head when it seemed as if the roof itself contracted beneath its talons.

It blasted the animal full on with a puff of mist.

The bird was dead a moment later, falling to the ground silently.

Even more of the fog began to escape from the building as the process of decay was completed. A earlier speed was abandoned - the building almost seemed like a train now; the fog shot out of the crevices created by the transformation at a fast, desperate pace.

The reason the fog wasn't spreading across the neighborhood at this moment was only because the wind was dispersing the clawing tendrils before they could settle.

Something had stirred to life within the bowels of the Matou home.

The figure that had caused this disaster merely passively glanced around the room it was standing in. Unlike most of the home, it could tell that both of the children's bedrooms had been intact. It wouldn't do to damage Mother or brother's things.

The creature smiled as the window opened itself.

"Thank you, lil miss." The creature tipped an imaginary hat at the window. It looked off to the side, staring at nothing in particular. "Take care of 'em, alright?"

Silence answered the question.

The creature smiled and bound out the window.

The glass window slammed shut, briefly reflecting the interior of the bedroom. Standing deep within a particularly thick cloud of fog was a cherubic girl with a scar on her face. She stared listlessly after the creature that had left for a few moments before it vanished.

The fog, which had refused to escape through the open window all this time, finally dispersed.

* * *

><p>The boundary field had flawlessly trapped them.<p>

They hadn't even had the chance to blink before the world had changed around them.

"Let us out of here!" The phone angrily demanded from where she had been placed on the ground. She ignored how Berserker slammed her fists uselessly into the front door of the Matou home in favor of shouting some more. "Only Father uses me as a lab rat, you hear?!"

Shirou stared at his surroundings. Within moments, it had decayed by at least twenty years. Possibly even more in some other parts of the ground floor.

'Is this the Matou magic?' He wondered, brow slumped slightly in thought. 'Then what was the sound of those bugs?'

He turned away from a gaping hole that revealed the kitchen to focus on Berserker.

"The boundary field would've shattered by now if it was about brute force, I think." Shirou spoke up. When he saw that Berserker's attention was fully focused on him, he continued somewhat more cautiously. "We're going to need to find the key to break out way out."

"Take me with you, then." The phone drew Shirou's eyes down. She inserted a haggling tone in her voice as she continued. "I felt something strange in the air before this happened. I might be able to track it down to the source."

Berserker blinked, running her hand through her face to expose her eyes from the long curtain of hair that normally covered them.

"You too?" She blinked twice. "It felt kind of familiar..."

The phone was silent.

"Of course we'll take you with us." Shirou knelt down to try and pull the phone's cord out of the wall. "Just let me at this..." He grunted as he grasped the wire.

Fog snuck out and around Shirou's fingers from the phone jack.

Berserker felt the surge of electricity coming well before Shirou did.

"Get out of the way, Master!" She yelled, shoving Shirou to the side. Her Master and the phone slid along the rotten planks moments before a surged of electricity came racing out of the jack. Berserker's whole body was lit up with an aura of crackling electricity.

By the time the wide eyed teenager was up to his feet, the electricity had rushed into Berserker's broken horn, making her slump forwards with a look of contentment.

The phone was left on the ground as Shirou rushed towards the girl.

"What's with that shameless expression?!"

"Berserker, are you alright?!" Shirou demanded, his voice just edging out the phone's demands. He snapped his fingers in front of her dazed gaze, making the girl foggily glance towards him. That's when he noticed the same thing the phone had. "What's wrong?!"

Berserker suddenly leaned towards him. He didn't panic until she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and brought him up against her.

"Master." The girl breathed out in a slow draw. She pressed herself up against him before she finished in a husky tone. "I feel so...so...full."

Shirou blankly stared at her pursed lips.

"...You lost me."

She giggled, leaning her face down towards his. Her hair parted one last time to show glassy eyes staring down into his.

"It's okay." Berserker murmured. "I'll find you soon."

Fog crept around the edges of the pair.

Unnoticed to the two of them, but seen by the phone, the wood began to rapidly decay beneath them.

"Hey!" The phone's angry declaration was enough to shake Shirou out of his stupor. "This isn't the time for this! The floor is going to collapse beneath the two of you!"

Shirou tried to pull away from Berserker, but she didn't seem to be keen on letting him go.

"Berserker!" He thrashed in her unbreakable grasp. "Let go, we're going to fall!"

Berserker continued to murmur nonsensical noises as she nuzzled her cheek against his. The phone had just about enough by the time the floor began to creak dangerously beneath the duo.

"If you two are going to be stupidly erotic, then I will fix this, then!" She angrily declared. Golden electricity flared up around the device. With a noisy crack, the aura around the device was flung at Berserker's horn.

Berserker shrilly screamed as her arms were forcibly pulled away from Shirou. As she reached up towards her forehead, Shirou tackled the slim girl out of the ring of decay that was forming beneath them. The ground gave up moments afterwards, noisily collapsing.

Shirou and Berserker slammed onto the ground, rolling away as the hole continued to grow. Eventually, it either ran out of energy or gave up, since the floor stopped collapsing after them. Both of them were left panting in surprise, still clutching to each other.

Berserker grew still beneath Shirou's arms.

"Berserker...?" Shirou looked up, suddenly wary as he looked up. "Is somethi-gah." The boy only saw a brief look of disappointment on Berserker's face before she brought down her pinkie. His entire world shook as the girl's light tap had enough force behind it to give him a mild headache.

He clutched at his head, eyes wide as he pulled away from Berserker.

The girl silently stood up. She calmly pulled her hair away from her face, exposing a stern gaze to her Master as she smoothed it behind her with a faintly sparking palm. The effect made it appear as if Berserker had grown up in the span of a few seconds.

"I am...*very* disappointed, Master." Berserker wagged a finger. She glanced down at herself. "Well, I'm more disappointed with the Trollop, really." She looked up and briefly glared at him. "But still! Do. Not. Commit. Dalliances. In. Haunted. Land."

Almost in response, a tendril of fog escaped from her horn. It was instantly annihilated with another electrified swing of Berserker's hand.

"Or you wind up cursed like that idiot."

Shirou's eyes lit up. "You're the phone, right?" He scrambled to his feet, words matching his actions. "Is Berserker okay? How did you do that?" The boy's questions slammed into each other as he took hold of Berserker's shoulders.

Berserker smiled at the contact. "Well, now I'm 'Berserker', but yes." She curtly nodded as she continued answering. "She's fine, just sleeping it off." She glanced over at the discarded, empty phone on the other side of the hole that had tried to swallow them. "We're all the same person."

Shirou was stunned silent, his hold on Berserker slackened slightly as the information sunk in.

"The Trollop was being spectacularly useless." Berserker cheekily smiled at the boy, lightly tapping his cheek. "I'll be with you the rest of the evening." She winked. "Please treat me well, okay?"

* * *

><p>The walls of the Matou home bulged and contracted as masses of fog rushed behind them. It produced a thin, airy groaning that followed Shirou and Berserker throughout the home. With a large chunk of the first floor destroyed, the two of them began to ascend the stairs.<p>

Shirou briefly glanced down the hole that had been exposed.

The fog rolled around thickest down there, briefly exposing what seemed like a stone basement. He tried to peer past the fog when he caught a flash of something moving, but the fog quickly moved to conceal the basement.

"Don't pay attention to it, Master. It's just wanting to waste our time." Berserker chided, taking his hand. She tugged him up another step. "I'll be able to lead us out of this disgusting trap now that I'm back in my body."

A loud noise drew their attention behind them.

The staircase behind them exploded, sending shards of wood everywhere. Berserker quickly pulled Shirou behind her, letting the sharp pieces uselessly bounce off her body. Dozens of writhing, hissing shapes pulled themselves up onto the remains of the staircase.

The fog thickly rose up to cover their figures, almost hugging the misshapen things like a second skin.

The stairs beneath them groaned.

"Well...that's unfortunate." Berserker mused, seeing the figures draw thick knives as they righted themselves like newborns.

She observed them take one wet, squishy step towards them before she took action.

Berserker and Shirou swiftly bound up the rest of the stairs with a single leap, the latter securely grasped by the former.

"What are those things?!" Shirou demanded, trying to look over Berserker's shoulder at the creatures behind them.

"Our invader trying to play mage, maybe?" Berserker wondered. Her nose twitched with disgust. "I really hope Jinshi isn't trying to teach you that kind of thing."

A glint of steel flashed ahead of them.

Berserker barely managed to contort away in time, wincing this time as the tar covered knife actually landed a glancing blow on her arm, tearing a strip of her white dress off. Worry appeared in her eyes for once.

"Bad taste." Shirou quipped, staring at the display ahead of them. Several kitchen knives were rising from a widening hole in front of them. In addition to the blades, flashes of fire could be seen down below as well. "...well, for a normal person."

This was probably reasonable for a magus somewhere.

Wet, oozing steps drew close behind them.

A blast of flame suddenly rushed up the hole, backlighting the knives and charring the roof as it stopped just shy of brushing the rotten wood. Shirou and Berserker saw how the weapons were seemingly bleeding more of the tar, covering themselves as they aimed at the boy in Berserker's arms. Before Shirou could even react, they rocketed towards him, adjusting in mid-flight to strike at his vitals.

Shirou, mistaking the target, moved himself to try and cover Berserker.

The knives hit their mark.

Berserker saw red as she staggered a step back towards the concealed abominations behind her. Shirou, having been pitched upwards at the last second by Berserker, came down hard on the other side of the hole moments before another blast of flame rose upwards.

"Why?" Shirou slammed his fist on the ground, staring at Berserker in shock.

The knives wiggled, trying to bury themselves deeper into Berserker's body. Her white dress turned pinked with blood.

"You wanted to protect me." Berserker gagged out blood as she tried to take a deep breath. She spun towards the monsters approaching, ripping the knives and crushing them in her grip. "My turn."

She screamed at the monsters.

The fog and whatever had composed their bodies were blown away as her howl reverberated through the hall. Shirou had to slap his hands over his ears to keep from having his ear drums blown out, remembering the force of Berserker's screams on the first night they had met. A visible cone of force spread out from her lips, slamming through the fog emitted by the beasts and ripping through them. Wet, sticky matter of unknown origin was sent flying, plastering the faded and threadbare wallpaper as she directed her scream at the walls themselves.

Unlike her earlier strikes on the entrance, this attack actually did affect the house. The entire building trembled and shook as the sonic attack slammed into one of the walls, digging through it. Pieces of rot were sent flying as a hole was dug out of the back wall of the hallway.

Revealing a completely normal, unblemished wall beneath it. The reality of the home before the boundary field had set in began to rapidly spread away from the point that Berserker struck. It even swept past Shirou himself, briefly turning the majority of the hallway back to normal.

Berserker's energies ran out that moment, though.

The girl collapsed to her knees, gasping as she clutched at the soft carpeting that had returned. With the termination of her attack, the roof - which still looked just shy of collapsing on them, swiftly sent tendrils of rot downwards.

'This was just an illusion?' The boy shook his head as he bound to his feet. 'Doesn't matter-'

"Berserker!" Shirou ran up to Berserker, catching her before she could collapse. She felt dangerously thin and airy in his arms at that moment as he tried to pull her to her feet. "We gotta get out of here before it starts up again!"

The walls were already turning a sick shade of grey.

Berserker gasped, trying to get enough breath to even answer Shirou. When he only gave her a desperate, stubborn look in response, she shook her head and reached up to her horn. The broken device came off her forehead with a quiet hiss.

"What do you want me to do with this?!" Shirou demanded when Berserker urgently pressed it into his hands. She pointed down the hallway, at a door that was slightly ajar. "...is that where the intruder is?"

Berserker nodded once.

"...finish..." She croaked.

Understanding dawned on Shirou. Knowing that he only had a little bit of time left, the boy reluctantly set Berserker down. Her faint smile of encouragement made it even harder for him to turn his back on her.

The humming of power in the horn assured him, though.

Shirou rushed ahead, glancing back at Berserker one last time before he dove through the door. The boy realized moments after he came out of his forward roll that the action had been totally wasted. In front of him, huddled beneath a swirling cluster of fog, was a little girl with short white hair and red eyes. The girl's fair complexion was broken by the scars that marked her face.

"...scary." The girl mumbled, clutching at her ears as she looked up at Shirou with dark eyes. "...the prototype is unfair..."

The boy returned her look with an awkward stare. The mood grew more strained when her body was wracked by a fresh set of shakes as she shakily rose to her feet.

Seeing her stand up, Shirou brought the horn before him threateningly.

"Who are you?" He demanded, feeling his sentimentality try and soften his tone when he saw how obviously afraid the girl was at the moment. The facts that she was standing in the heart of his friend's home and she tried to kill Berserker were enough to lend his voice an edge of steel. "What did you do to Shinji? Or his sister?"

"...told to take care of you..." The girl dreamily replied. Her blank tone gained a hint of reproach. "...but you win today..."

The fog began to disperse before Shirou's eyes. The girl stepped back into the fog, blissfully closing her eyes as it began to cover her like a blanket. Both of them began to swiftly vanish in front of Shirou.

"Get back here!" Shirou lunged forwards, trying to use the horn. His attempt at tagging the girl wound up missing as her torso dispersed into the fog. "Are you with Kirei?"

The last thing to vanish was her lips, which lazily curled up.

"...won't win tomorrow." She mouthed. "Bye bye."

The roof's rot began to vanish as if it was a bad dream, dispersing with the fog itself.

Shirou was left alone in a completely normal looking bedroom. Lacking any way to vent, he calmly walked over towards Sakura's bed, grabbed a pillow, and promptly tossed it to the ground in frustration. He considered it a few moments before picking it up and carefully putting it back where it was originally.

Any further vandalism was put on hold, though.

The horn in Shirou's hands, which had been warmly glowing, suddenly began to cool.

Shirou felt his heart sink.

"Berserker!"

* * *

><p>Morning came quickly to the Ryuudou Temple.<p>

"Why do you have to head out so damn early, Issei?" The cocksure voice of his best friend spoke up behind him. "No one is going to like such a brown-noser, you know?"

Issei Ryuudou shrugged, leaning down to tie his shoes.

"I seem to be doing pretty well." He dryly answered, looking up to see his best friend lean towards him. "Why would I want to take the advice of such a shameless man like you?"

Shinji gave his friend a grin and a one fingered salute.

"Well, screw you too, buddy." The boy sadly shook his head. "Just don't turn to me when you get bullied."

Issei stood up, grabbing his backpack.

"Don't miss class, okay?" He gave Shinji a look of concern. "I don't want you dragging the temple's name down."

Shinji snorted. "Yeah, yeah." He breezily waved, turning to head back into the temple.

The front door opened, drenching Issei's back with light. Two shadows appeared besides Issei's for a split second before the door closed.

"Please forgive my brother, Mister Ryuudou." Sakura's soft voice spoke up behind Issei. He turned to see her standing by herself, holding a boxed lunch towards him hopefully. "He's just ...rowdy. He doesn't mean half the stuff he says."

The last phrase was said with a just a hint of profound desperation, but Sakura had thrust the bento at Issei before he could reply.

"Have a good day, okay?" Sakura flashed him an uneasy smile. She quickly bowed and raced off after Shinji. "Brother, stop picking fights with Mister Ryuudou!"

The boy wryly shook his head.

'Sometimes I wonder how Shinji can tolerate this life.'

Issei frowned as he looked down the hallway.

'What a troublesome frie...nd?'

Issei blinked. He blinked twice more. The boy shook his head as his eyes focused in the direction that the two siblings had gone.

'Friend...?'

An unpleasant itch, in the region between his shoulders, forced him to break his concentration away from thoughts of the siblings.

'What's...wrong?' He tried to reach behind his back with his hand. 'Something is...'

A sheen of fear crossed his eyes as he quickly spun to take in his surroundings.

As suddenly as the sensation came-

'That's strange.' He blinked, relief flooding him. 'Nothing's wrong.'

Yes, that's right.

Issei shook his head, smiling dumbly as he picked up his dropped bag.

'Shinji is right.' He thought as he left for school. 'If I'm panicking this much, I'll be bullied in no time at all.'

Shinji was a good friend.

Best not dismiss his advice in the future.


	13. Chapter 11

Fate/Stay Night and its spin offs are properties of Type-Moon, Nitroplus, Image Epoch. All additional references belong to their respective companies.

Chapter 11: Mockup II

* * *

><p><em>Columbia, 1993.<em>

The two forces met on a bloody field.

On one side, an assembly of the church's Executors raced through the jungles of South America. Their black and gray outfits stood out amongst the lush hues of their surroundings. Most creatures that dared challenge them were torn apart with powerful martial arts and their sharp blades.

On the other, monstrous abominations - various mixtures of man and beast, misshapen automatons made of poorly shaped clay and plants, and even mountain-like clusters of earth and towering trees were animated to face the humans.

Hazily seen in the distance was a large mansion, briefly vanishing in and out of sight.

Even as the beasts dove deep into the squads of men and women facing them, several of them were picked apart from afar. At the other side of the long ranged weapons were a smaller group of people. With their mechanical devices, and outfits made of earthy tones to blend into their environments, were the Alchemists of Atlas.

* * *

><p>"How's the patch job holding up, young man?" The healer before him asked. She was a hardy looking thing, possessing the air of a matriarch. Kirei felt surprisingly at ease, which lead to his reaction.<p>

"It's fine." Kirei good-naturedly answered, drawing a faint smile from the woman addressing him. He opened and closed his hand a few more times, letting the pain wash through him.

"We're nearly out of supplies, but I suppose it's enough to know at least I didn't waste any." The woman accused. A look of poorly hidden disgust was on her face. "If that's enough, may I go? I need to perform the burial rites to a few more-"

"Yes, this is more than enough." He answered.

The alchemist nodded; she turned and walked away before Kirei could even thank her.

Kirei Kotomine flexed his bicep, testing the replacement ligaments binding his injuries together. In the moonlight, hints of the gleaming etherlite binding his arm to the rest of his body could be faintly seen. The breeze flowing through the forest clearing cooled his high fever to a manageable level.

The scent of blood still clung to him, trying to lure him into a sense of satisfaction.

So this was good enough of a treatment.

The Executor clenched his fist one last time before deeming it enough punishment . He nodded at the woman, who moved away from him to treat more of their forces. Shrugging on his bloody vestaments, Kirei closed his eyes as he softly began to mutter a prayer.

_"If I die before I wake, I pray the lord my soul to take."_

The simple, childish plea traveled just far enough from the Executor's lips for God to hear. His sacraments triggered, flooding his body with a surge of adrenaline. The healing miracle helped the man finish treating his injuries. The somewhat inept job that the alchemist had done on him was finished by Kirei's skilled abilities.

No one would know any better.

"Ah, I see you're out here being a masochist again." Joshua Eltnam declared. The alchemist was wearing even more threadbare clothing than the priest's vestaments, but he wore a happy smile on his face despite it all. "What is it this time? Uncomfortable tightness in your knickers when you gutted those heretics we've been fighting? Or did hearing one of our men squeal like a stuck pig make you go off like a loaded cannon?"

Except for a certain, troublesome man.

Kirei grimaced when he felt the probe on his mind. In a display of will, his body was flooded with prana as he instinctively repelled the mental attack. The etherlite that had been binding his arm snapped, drawing a wince from the priest as he clutched at his limb.

"No pain, no gain, right?" Joshua asked. He laughed, drawing a thin string back towards him. Seeing Kirei's blank look, the man smiled as he strode up to him like an old friend. "That's what I like about you, Executor. You don't mind - no matter what we do."

"It doesn't matter." Kirei replied. He finished patching himself up with the remnants of prana floating through his system. "We're both on the same side."

The alchemist grinned. "Of course we are." He strolled up to the man's personal space, intently staring at the priest. Kirei uncomfortably shifted as he met the man's frank, appraising stare.

"What?"

"Hm, we're meeting up to go over the plan for tomorrow." Joshua grinned. He gestured for Kirei to follow after him. "You might be a genius, but I bet you want to know what we're going to do tomorrow, yes?"

Kirei snorted, but silently followed anyway. The dark skinned man ahead of him may claim him to be a genius, but that had done precisely nothing to help their campaign thus far. Already it had been three days since they had begun their raid on these godless lands, but they hadn't gained any ground at all.

It was almost as if the land itself rebelled against them; an attempt at the heretics protecting themselves?

The two men walked out of the clearing and into the thicker part of the woods. Several wary, tired eyes stared at the two. Of the collective sitting beneath or on the branches of trees, one could instantly notice a pattern.

There was a visible divide in the group. On one side, alchemists clung to in small clusters as they sat at the base of the trees. On the other, the Executors either stood around lazily amongst themselves, or were in smaller groups on the branches.

It was almost fascinating to Kirei, on an intellectual level, to see how the tension visibly ran along the two groups. Kirei nor Joshua paid any attention to the dark looks the two were receiving for their association.

Their goal was just past the main groups of pawns. Pushing past them led Kirei and Joshua to a small grove hidden in the shadow of two particularly large trees. Standing in their path into that grove were two of the strongest fighters in the hastily assembled unit.

"We're here for our marching orders." Joshua said. When the Executors glared at him, he smiled good-naturedly. "I swear on my dead mother that I didn't read what you just thought about me, no sir." He sloppily saluted.

The glare turned up.

"Kirei Kotomine." The Executor interrupted. When his fellows focused on him, the man leveled the most flat stare he could at them. "Don't waste my time with this pettiness."

"Let them in." A new voice said. Both Executors turned a shade paler as they stepped aside, allowing Kirei and Joshua to walk past them. The grove was surprisingly large - it had to be since it had been converted into an impromptu war room, with several supplies hastily thrown in a corner. Several dry erase boards with markers and their erasers were set up around the area, with at least ten people running around the area.

Joshua glanced at the alchemists manning several radios along the grove.

Kirei ignored the area; his gaze was reserved for the woman casually sitting in front of him. Unlike the rest of the church forces, she looked as fresh as the first day they had begun on their ill fated mission to stomp down the heretic living in the jungle.

"Yes? What can I do to serve you today, madam?" Kirei asked.

Janice A. Schach, the leader of the forces that had been assembled, gave the man a flat look that mirrored his own.

"Kirei Kotomine." She said in the dryest tone possible. "I need you to be a hero."

Kirei blinked.

* * *

><p><em>Fuyuki, 2004.<em>

Kirei felt a yawning gap in his heart as he and his assistant moved through a crowd of rubberneckers. While this was hardly anything new for the priest - he had been feeling it consistently for the entirety of his life; the sight before him somehow managed to make it feel especially profound today.

They had just arrived in time to see the destruction of Kiritsugu Emiya's home.

Standing besides the petrified man's side, Misaya blandly glanced between Kirei and the construction team that were moving to clean up the ashes. The alchemist waved a hand in front of the man, not really liking how his face had gone blank.

Kirei blinked and glanced down.

Misaya returned his blink and pointed off to a corner of the property. At the end of her finger were several portable bathrooms were set up there for the men that were hurriedly moving along the Emiya property.

"You need to go?" She bluntly wondered. "'cuz you're looking kind of weird. Like, almost people-weird, but I know that can't be. You're pretty much a robot, so I'm just going to assume you need to get an oil change and-"

The priest simply looked away from Misaya, gaze focused on the building. Already, a large wrecking ball machine was lumbering onto the ground to knock down the charred skeleton that was all that remained of his old rival's home.

It felt...

"Hey!" Misaya tried to get his attention.

Kirei took a step forwards when the massive ball knocked down the frame, but stopped himself from moving further.

The alchemist frowned, playing with her yoyo in the absence of Kirei's attention. She only managed to tangle the thing around her fingers, and she couldn't focus any prana through the etherlite to get it straightened out whilst amongst this crowd. "Well, okay then." She darkly muttered, ignoring the priest in turn.

The priest kept staring at the ruins.

* * *

><p><em>Columbia, 1993.<em>

The campfire cast three long shadows behind the individuals sitting around it. At the moment, the only sound that could be heard was the crackling of the underbrush feeding the fire.

Each of the people gathered around the flame had been specifically selected for their current side mission for their talents. Talents which had served them well in the days that followed. Their goal was simple; become a strike force to sneak into the heart of the base they had been trying to invade.

Kirei Kotomine observed the other two that had been chosen to follow him.

"Mmm, I think this should be enough." The only female amongst them mused. "It should be enough to last us until we get to the facility."

Bennu Eltnam, the same woman that had helped heal him, was focused on sorting through a pack full of medicines. The bottles filled with various strange looking liquids and ointments glowed in the light of the campfire.

"Will it last to get us back?"

Jabari Eltnam was a few years younger than Kirei, he carried himself with a no-nonsense air. He was currently making his own entertainment by fiddling with coils of rope, knotting them in an elaborate set of knots. Once he was done, the long haired man wrapped them around his thickly muscled arms.

"It will have to." Bennu replied. The woman looked up, eyes narrowed as she looked at a cluster of bushes. "Well, if we don't have an unexpected battle, that is. Did you drag trouble across our path again, black cat?"

Kirei and Jabari tensed, looking up as a figure moved out from the bushes.

"You're all boring." Joshua said. The man looked aggravated. "I shouldn't have come along with you. I haven't seen such a quiet bunch in ages."

"It's a stealth mission." Kirei retorted with a frown. "I thought we had managed to leave you behind."

Joshua shook his head. "I'm not letting you leave me behind." He smiled at Kirei. "You're too interesting to leave behind."

Kirei ignored the man's answer, turning back towards the campfire.

Bennu gave Joshua a flat stare. "Well, did you at least come with the other's blessings?" She really didn't want to find out he was AWOL.

"Nope!"

"Brilliant." Jabari replied. His tone was dry, matching with the flat stare he flashed the cheekily smiling Joshua. "So we'll have to sneak into the heart of that lunatic's lair with you."

"I managed to track you three down, didn't I?" Joshua asked with an easy going smile.

Kirei and the other two traded silent looks.

* * *

><p><em>Fuyuki, 2004.<em>

The streets of Fuyuki were busy that morning. In the more urban areas, cars already began to race around the busy town, filling the network of streets as people went to work. The less developed areas were also bustling with people getting ready to go to work or school.

Amongst these crowds, a pair of children practically falling over each other were given a few dirty looks. It mostly came from the older generation, which found it a rather shameful display. Some of the glares stabbing into the duo were from a few middle school aged boys.

Seeing an older girl practically draping herself over a boy their age was more than enough to set off their jealousy.

Neither party was close enough to the two to catch the whiff of blood coming from the older girl, though. The smell of the smog generated by traffic handled that little problem easily for the duo desperately trying to get home.

* * *

><p>"So, who started amateur hour?" Misaya wondered as she finished laying down her etherlite around her. Once it was properly set down, a tangible haze descended on the corner of the Emiya property. Anyone looking at that part of the property wouldn't even notice the meeting that was going on between her, Kirei, and one of the firefighters that had been on the site before them.<p>

Behind them, the destruction of the home went unimpeded.

The firefighter, clad in a thick blue overcoat, crossed his arms as he flashed her an annoyed gaze.

"What?" Misaya protested. Her expression was guileless. "It's true, though. Right, Kirei?" She asked as she looked off to the side.

Kirei solemnly nodded, but kept his own council.

"You allow his daughter too many privileges." Jabari Eltnam replied with a sigh. Although he went by Kyou Reiroukan these days, the large man was as terse as ever. "Still, you are right. It wasn't our forces that did this."

"Little Shirou is still alive, for starters." Misaya smiled. When the two men glanced at her, she simply offered them a helpless shrug. "What? He brought it down on himself."

"Was it those yakuza, then?" Kirei asked. He got a nod from the larger man. Jabari reached into his coat, drawing out a picture with his large fingers.

Misaya and Kirei leaned towards to inspect it.

"I took this picture during the aftermath of the fire." Jabari pointed out. On the image, covered slightly by the man's large fingers, was an image of the granddaughter of the local boss embracing Shirou Emiya. "That's Taiga Fujimura. She's the granddaughter of the local boss. They left together, but I couldn't quite break away from the others in time to catch them."

Misaya barely kept her smirk in check.

'Not that good at memory manipulation.'

She decided to leave her thoughts unvoiced, though.

Jabari gave the girl a faintly challenging look. Seeing that things were devolving, the priest cleared his throat.

"Alright, it's fine." Kirei responded. "It's a great start." He took the picture from Jabari, focusing on the face of his rival's son. "He's most likely already at the main building, though."

"Well..." Misaya spoke up. Kirei glanced over at her as she played with her earring before she continued. "Do we know if that Taiga woman wants to stay with her grandfather? She's like in her twenties, right?" She stuck out her tongue in slight distaste. "I know I definitely wouldn't want to live with an old timer any longer than I had to."

The look she shot at Kirei made Jabari bristle slightly.

"Show some decen-" The large man started.

Kirei considered Misaya's words. "It's true." The girl blinked, surprised that he had caught. "Rin didn't ever want to stay at the church after a while." His dismissal of Misaya's unsubtle plea at being let to leave the church made her frown. The priest calmly continued after tucking the picture into his coat. "I believe we'll have to search for the Fujimura girl's apartment, then."

"I'll stay here." Jabari replied. "It'll be best if we make sure any trace of magecraft is destroyed."

Kirei started to nod, but Misaya suddenly shot her hand up.

"Oi, 'Kyou'. That Emiya boy is a magus, right?" The girl infused an overdose of sugar in her question. "Keep an eye on anything he could've used to do what happened at the school, alright?"

Jabari gave her a wary gaze. "Why would we even-" He was interrupted when Kirei chuckled and nodded in agreement. "Sir?" He blinked in surprise.

"Well, it's important to know what happened." Kirei began, gesturing at the ruins of the home. "We don't have all the facts yet. It's best to know what we're exactly dealing with before he blunder into the situation."

"Yes!" Misaya excitedly smiled, while Jabari's mood went down in equal measure. "We can't destroy all that knowledge. Imagine what we could do if we could summon without the aid of the Holy Grail. All that -"

"Yet." Kirei interrupted, drawing a grimace from the girl. He glanced over at Jabari. "I'll send some more reinforcements here. I want to know what we're dealing with so we can destroy it quicker. Rip the knowledge from the earth itself, if you have to."

"Of course, sir."

Misaya gaped at the priest as he calmly walked out of the field she had laid down. She felt Jabari's hand land on her shoulder. She looked up at him, briefly seeing a look of sympathy on the man's face. "Misaya, remember what the main reason we're here for." His voice was cool. "Our own curiosity takes second place to keeping the sheep complacent."

Misaya narrowed her eyes at the man.

"We're professionals, remember that. Just a little bit of advice, 'niece'. Take it or leave it." Jabari let go of her shoulder, leaving Misaya stewing by herself.

* * *

><p><em>Columbia, 1993.<em>

They could see the plumes of fire and smell the stench of death, carried downwind. Distantly, they could see fields of animated trees being set aflame by a small group of alchemists.

The Executors guarding them were fending off the attacks of the abominations trying to sneak up on them.

The four wandering through the halls of the base overlooking the armies below turned their backs. "We're almost done." Bennu whispered, clutching the vastly reduced bag on her side. "Then we can leave this forsaken land."

Joshua flashed her a sympathetic look. Jabari merely kept his gaze to their rear, watching out for hostiles.

"Just one more floor." Kirei stated. His gaze was steady on the staircase ahead of them.

"No need to go out of your way." A voice called down to them from above. "I'm already here, after all." His declaration was met by Kirei and his party drawing their weapons. Coils of metal, black keys, etherlite, and throwing needles met the smug face of the heretic they had come to purify.

The man was clad in a traditional magus outfit from Prague, a darker robe with a white mantle over it.

Unlike the airy clothing that the alchemists were wearing, it was heavy on the man's thick frame and weaved with several classical alchemical symbols. Several seams could be seen on his robes, pockets heavily weighted down with what could only be precious reagents. A metal-like material, which gleamed in the dusking sun, reinforced the dark cloak.

Kirei imagined his clothing would have practically dragged the man to the ground.

Were he not floating in mid-air, that was.

"So, you're - really, you're calling yourself **that**?" Joshua asked, a gleaming string of etherlite connected between the floating man and himself. His expression was one of fed up disgust as he looked up at the other alchemist that was floating just slightly past the edge of the balcony overseeing them. "Amun?"

"So, they thought to send in some people to challenge me in my workshop?" The man looked over at Joshua. "Eltnam too?" He sneered at the man, reaching up and crushing the etherlite that had been connecting him to the other man. "Trying to read the mind of a god, are we?"

"...you've gone mad, haven't you?" Bennu quietly asked, voice laced with pity. "What did you do to yourself in this island to have fallen so absolutely?"

Jabari stepped forwards, the metal and rope coils dangling from his arms writhing like living creatures. "It doesn't matter now. He's just a heretic."

"Hahah, I've become more than that." The madman laughed. "I've gained a great power. Something beyond what any of you pathetic creatures can hope to achieve!" He threw his arms out, mantle fluttering on his figure.

The entire area trembled.

"And with it- I'll slay you all where you stand!"

Kirei drew his black keys before him, fanning the hilts in between his knuckles. "_Let my soul live as if separated from my body._" He intoned, the sacraments flowing in his body flaring to life. The miracle filled him, reinforcing his body.

The Prague alchemist roared, holding up two feldspars to the sky. Their surfaces got the light shining into the room from the massive windows, glinting off. The invaders scattered when the stones shattered, refracted mystical energy raining down on them.

"Let your god protect you now, then!" Searing bolts of flame and golden rays of light pierced the ground beneath Kirei's group, sending them rushing away. Kirei and Bennu threw their projectiles at the madman, who flew out of the way. They embedded themselves deeply in the wall behind the man, cracking the wall.

Flames and smoke concealed him from sight as the invaders started rushing forwards.

Joshua and Jabari pulled ahead of the group, rushing up the flight of stairs. Cresting the top of the stairs, with heat and their fellow team members behind them, they saw the madman they had come to stop crash down onto the ground, shattering a small wand he had in hand, several yards in front of him.

Kirei and Bennu were nearly swallowed by a pit as the stairs began to collapse.

Simultaneously, the ground rippled towards Joshua and Jabari, the ground breaking apart into a set of spikes. Both of the men, aware of their partners rushing up behind them, threw themselves into the line of fire. They threw their arms forwards, commanding the coils and etherlite they had to weave together into an impenetrable net.

Using the two men, on opposite sides of the hallway, as posts - the net bulged towards Kirei and Bennu as the two crested the stairway. Neither of the two paused as they saw the wave of sharp stone slow and stop in front of their noses, choosing to leap over the net and come down towards the madman.

He floated backwards, barely dodging a swing that would have decapitated him from Bennu, and using his levitation to bounce to the side. Kirei's lunge put the Executor face to face with the mad alchemist for a split second.

Amun grinned. "Having fun, yet?" His robe's sleeves slid downwards, revealing mirrored gauntlets. Kirei's senses practically screamed at him to move out of the way. Jabari and Joshua were both barely unwinding their net, Bennu was slightly too slow to keep up with his and the mad man's speeds, but despite it all...

"I am." He admitted, blood singing in his ears.

They met in a clash of weapons.

* * *

><p><em>Fuyuki, 2004.<em>

"Are you coming?" Kirei asked. Misaya found her head shaking of its own violition. The priest gave her a curious look. "I see. What are you going to do?"

"Hm, there's still some others that we need to look into." Misaya explained. Not quite a lie, but she wasn't quite feeling the love at the moment. "I'm just going to check into them."

Kirei quirked his head. "The Sajyou? Matou?" He wondered, surprised at her answer.

Misaya shrugged. "Yes. By our count, they're the only ones left, right?" She leisurely waved her hand at Kirei. "Trust me - I can handle two mundanes. You can look for Little Shirou. I'll look for the others." She tapped her ear, and offered him a cheesy - slightly mocking smile. "Just call me if you need any help."

"Alright." Kirei gave into her request. The priest considered her for a few moments. "You're going to see if the others know the secret to what happened, don't you?" He smiled faintly at her shocked expression.

"That's.."

"Fine." Kirei allowed as he turned the opposite way. Misaya stared at his back. "Let's make it a challenge, Misaya. If you can get to them, you'll get to keep the knowledge."

"But...?" Misaya ventured.

"You may have to work on your necromancy if you don't get there before I do." Kirei glanced back at her. "So, try to keep up, alright?"

Misaya simmered slightly as she watched the man calmly begin walking away.

Going to be like that, was he?

'Well,' A voice came to (her) mind. 'That is just what Kirei Kotomine is like.'

Well, it was time to break out the big guns, then!

* * *

><p><em>Columbia, 1993.<em>

The winter is cold in Rome.

Or that's what (she) thinks. Especially after that long campaign in the jungles of South America. The direct trip between both locales are enough to make even (her) etherlite shatter from the extremes in temperature.

Rome is colder when you're forced to sleep outside, like a common mutt, though.

Jabari, of course, doesn't care.

Bennu looks so charmingly confused and sad, though. It was enough to want to snuggle h(ew ew ew)er. Of course the Eltnams that had survived the campaign weren't going to be taking their time in the sun along with the Executors. That was just stupid.

Didn't help the newbies when they came back, expecting praise from the Church.

(She) was too jaded at this point to really be treated as more than just a mercenary. At least the food (she) had stolen using a little bit of coercive application of (her) etherlite with was some good stuff. Sharing it with Jabari and Bennu, all three of us just sit back and stare up at the stars outside the grand cathedral.

Footsteps echo behind (her).

Shock flows through (her) as Kirei Kotomine takes up a seat with them, taking a sip of the wine he had been served in an ornate glass. Several of the alchemists besides Jabari and Bennu stare at the Executor. If he showed any reaction to them, it was completely unknown by his expression.

Not that it stopped (her), though.

"Not afraid?" (She) asked Kirei, looking over at the priest. "We're no longer doing a mission together. Any of us could reduce you to a drooling wreck."

He blinked back at (her).

"Why?" Kirei asked. He sounded genuinely confused. "They never stopped saying I should treat you like an ally."

(She) burst out laughing.


	14. Chapter 12

"Why do I have to get all the crappy jobs?" Saitou Ryoma complained. He angrily pulled his paper cap off and stuffed it into his apron pocket. "Am I really that disposable?"

Well, of course he was. The fact he was wandering across the unkempt yard of the Matou home was enough to prove that. Exactly what possessed them to send him on this suicide mission, especially when one of the Three Families were involved, was beyond him.

'I'm not going to go out quietly! Even if I have to give them heartburn when I go down their pets throats!'

Nothing was left to lose at this point, his supervisors would flay him alive if he abandoned it. So, under the ever present eye of the security camera installed on his falafel stand on him, he extended etherlite towards the door. The solitary string trembled with his repressed emotions, slowly moving to come into contact with the bronze latches on the side of the door.

Saitou clenched his eyes, wishing he could've gotten a chance to buy that netsuke of Tamamo-no-Mae he had been eying for a while now. The sensation of the etherlite tapping the door carried through to him, making him grunt in confusion as he opened his eyes.

"Eh?"

Brain death hadn't come, which was more than what Saitou had expected when he started off this endeavor. Further investigation revealed that the boundary field around the mansion had been corrupted.

Saitou stuck his tongue out a little, wetting his lips as he tried to peak into the protective enchantments on the building.

No, not corrupted. It was more like the mansion's boundary field had been devoured. Whatever fearsome strength it had was gone now.

"No good, huh? Let's get this done." Saitou laughed afterward, manipulating his string to undo the screws on the hinge. Feeling bold, he also put on a heavy glove over his hand and reached for the door knob. It clacked as the lock on the door refused to budge beneath his grasp.

The latches fell when they were unscrewed, allowing Saitou to enter the Matou home moments later.

*-*-*

Fate/Stay Night and its spin offs are properties of Type-Moon, Nitroplus, Image Epoch. All additional references belong to their respective companies.

Chapter 12: Structural Analysis, I

*-*-*

Shirou Emiya's life had been in danger last night. His death would have been assured if it wasn't for the protection of his guardian.

Even now, she was on her last legs, practically collapsing onto the ground. If it wasn't for his support, they would have fallen. Simple movement was a labor in of itself as the duo somehow had forced themselves across town and to Taiga's apartment.

Despite the long trip, ignoring the hot morning sun, and not even acknowledging the intense stares at their dress.

In this lobby, they had finally met their match.

"What sort of lifestyle are you leading, young man?" A fifty year old man demanded. The man's build was tall and reedy. Sort of like a bamboo stalk, with wrinkles, maybe. Spittle flew from the old man's mouth as he tried to water Shirou like a plant. "Taiga Fujimura may be allowing it, but I will not stand for rebellious youth to be wandering the streets so late at night! And look at yourselves, why are you two even wearing those ridiculous outfits!"

Over to the side, a doddering old man was getting in Berserker's face. Shirou used old in this case since he was like - way too old. Much older than his partner. The short, stout man kind of looked like some kind of melon. Very rolypoly.

They had just stumbled into the lobby of Taiga's apartment when this two member 'Security Team' had accosted them.

Shirou assumed they had nothing better to do at the hour.

The few younger adults around them merely gave the two teenagers tolerant smiles. Some of them looked openly sympathetic. Oh, great.

He couldn't even rely on Berserker this time.

While hassling a Heroic Spirit was normally a dangerous, stupid shortcut to the hereafter, she was tolerating it. In fact, she seemed to be positively enchanted with the rather shrunken senior citizen, eying him like one did some sort of miniature poodle. Even failing at trying to pet him, and just riling the poor man up in the process.

"Waah," Berserker breathed out. She was totally phasing out the other man's rants. "He looks so worldly."

Berserker's arm lifted from beneath the plastic bike cover he had hastily stripped from the Matou house's garage. It was the only thing he could think of to cover her bloody dress. She pressed a unhealthily pale, perhaps one could even call it transparent, hand against her cheek.

"I bet you'd look dashing with some grey hair too, Master." Berserker claimed. The singsong tone she had, and continued glances over at the shriveled old man were incredibly worrying.

"When are you going to grow up, Master?"

"... why?"

Berserker turned to face him, eyes large and filled with conviction. During that moment, the old man that was the center of her unnerving attention wisely pulled out of the young girl's grasp. Smart for him.

Unfortunately he could't do the same.

"A bright and fresh Master has his charms too." She helpfully patted him on the head. "Master is always going to be Master. So I'm fine with either!"

She gave him a thumbs up.

"Please stop."

Yes, geriatrics would succeed where a Heroic Spirit had failed.

What a terrible fate.

"Hey!" A Tiger came to save them. A very annoyed Tiger that was bounding towards them from the elevator. "What are you two doing?! Abe-san, Kozue-san, that's my Shirou!" The portly Abe, and suspender wearing Kozue, looked briefly like they had their hands caught in a cookie jar.

Berserker's eyes narrowed.

"And some other person, I guess." Taiga looked away briefly, but recovered from her near brush with disaster to swat at Kozue. "Stop harassing him! Stop being such nosy old men!" She leaned in towards them to hiss in a quiet voice. "I swear, who ever heard of 'neighborhood watch' yakuza?"

"We're just looking out for the boss's granddaughter!" Abe sounded dismayed, stamping his walking cane against the ground. "It's the least we can do now that you live here!"

"You old fart, you don't have to do that kind of stuff anymore!" Taiga said, and stamped her foot to make her point.

"So what? You're still wet behind the ears, girl! Don't you know how many conmen would die to get at the Fujimura fortunes?" Kozue sneered, thumbing over at Shirou. The boy in question  
>simply stared back at Kozue with a flat, somewhat tired expression.<p>

"I'm a grown woman!" Taiga wailed in dismay, offended and outraged. "Plus I don't need money to find a man!"

"Couldn't hurt." Shirou volunteered.

"Shut up, idiot!"

"Well, I remember changing your diapers, so there!" Abe's counter made Taiga go furiously bright yet.

"D-don't say that kind of stuff!" She shrieked.

"I could've led a very healthy, productive life without that." Shirou raised a hand, and was immediately shut down by two old men and a young woman's shouts. "...shutting up now, okay."

And so the Fujimura dirty laundry continued to be aired.

"Look, all I'm saying is that he's my responsibility! Shirou's always been mine, so please stand back and let me take care of-"

"-and just look at the hours he comes in! With a Jezebel on his arm to boot!"

"What century are you living in, old man?! I'll have you know-"

Meanwhile, Berserker continued to eerily observe a rather timid Abe.

A new party was slowly drawn in by the gravitational pull of their insanity. Shirou had no recourse but to watch the fool approach, trapped as he was. The boy could at least read the man his last rights.

"Reiji-san," Shirou spoke out to the suited man. "You don't have your chain on today."

The other yakuza member forced a smile.

"So you live here now, Shirou-kun? You do realize only the Fujimura live here."

"I suppose so. And now I do, yes." He listlessly replied. Feeling Berserker try to leave his side, he yanked her back close to him.

"Master," Of course, this just reinforced her attitude, causing her to cuddle him. "Don't be jealous. He doesn't even have a blowtorch."

Reiji caught onto Shirou's expression. "A-are you okay?"

"Heroes of Justice don't cry." Shirou created a new mantra that day.

*-*-*

Taiga was anxiously prowling around the living room, moving around the mountain of pillows that were strewn around. If she had a tail, it would probably be lashing about. Perhaps with her ears twitching agitatedly every few moments.

Shirou needed to stop that dangerous line of thinking, he didn't want to tempt fate right now. The whole ordeal with Abe and Kozue was still kind of a sour subject for his guardian at the moment. Kind of a weird one with Berserker too, come to think of it.

"Ah, that grey hair." Berserker wistfully sighed, lying on several pillows. "I hope Master-" She broke out in giggles.

Scary.

"So, Fujimura-san put a whole division of men here. I didn't know that. You're just that dangerous around an electric oven, huh?" Still, it had been going on a minute of silence. It was unnerving him, and he made stupid word choices when he got nervous.

One step forward, two back.

Taiga glared at him, shutting him up. Actually, she had been doing that for a while now. It probably didn't help that Shirou was trying to keep the situation light at the moment. Possibly was the blood that was liberally smeared and caked on his clothing.

In fact, it was probably that.

"Can you please, please tell me why you two look like you're extras from a horror movie?" To be fair, Berserker was the one that had taken all the damage. His attempt to point this out merely caused him to dodge as a little bit of an eraser was chucked at him. Seemed that Taiga had been trying to do her homework while they were gone, but all the blank pages sort of told him that she hadn't been successful at it.

"We ran into some trouble." Shirou spun a new answer.

"Sorry." Berserker looked contrite for once. It was made all the more pitiable by the fact she was lying flat on the ground of Taiga's apartment. Without the allure of the old man around, and the combination of the enforced grounding by Shirou and the reminder of her failure from Taiga were enough to rob the girl of her normal happy expression.

Shirou briefly considered bringing the old timers back in, just to get a smile back from the girl.

"So you two bit off more than you could chew?" Taiga sounded frightened, taking a seat on the patch of ground directly across from Shirou. She rapidly shook her hand towards Berserker. "Something actually wounded that rampaging monster?" She paused. Then offered a sickly sweet smile. "Uhm, no disrespect meant, of course."

Berserker pouted, the sides of her eyes scrunching up slightly.

"Please don't cry." Shirou reached over, patting the top of her hand. Once he got a determined nod, he turned towards Taiga with a frown. "Shinji is in trouble. When we got to the mansion, it looked like there was a fight. There was stuff scattered all over the place."

"Is that where you were attacked?"

Shirou nodded.

"Whatever attacked us could actually hurt Berserker."

"Master...could have gotten hurt." Berserker squirmed, clearly not enjoying the memories from the expression on her face. Taiga glanced over at the other girl in sympathy. Her hand clenched and unclenched in helplessness.  
>"What now?" Taiga asked.<p>

Shirou helplessly looked around them. "Berserker's hurting. She managed to restore the injuries, but we're running low on power again. We're going to at least knock down the electrical grid in the building for a while, sorry."

Taiga looked at the past evidence of cuts that the gawdy yellow tarp had been hiding on Berserker's body. Where new, healthy looking skin was now shown, the actual dress itself still was bloodied and frayed.

"Okay, but what do we do after?" Taiga didn't mind, but there were bigger things to deal with. "Is there anything else you can tell me?"

Shirou bit his lip, looking conflicted. He wanted nothing more than to go jump out and keep looking for Shinji. Especially after that sudden attack at the Matou home, but one look at Berserker stopped him from voicing his desires outloud.

She wasn't going to be up for a fight for a while.

"I don't know." Shirou hung his head, looking ill at ease. "There isn't anything we can do."

"Will we be attacked here?"

Shirou glanced at Berserker, who answered for him.

"No, safe during the day." Berserker's voice was actually serious for a moment, surprising the two humans. Something in her insisted that was the way it should be. "Nothing followed." She concluded with confidence.

Taiga closed her eyes, feeling guilty for the relief that she felt at that moment. Still, she could volunteer one idea.

"You two need to rest," She insisted, looking at Berserker and Shirou.

Shirou's silent nod, followed by Berserker's chimed in response, was enough for Taiga. Taiga rose to her feet. Afterward she pulled a stuttering boy up with her.

"H-hey, what about Berserker?" Shirou demanded, trying to resist. "We have to heal her up first!"

Taiga looked at the young woman.

"You doing fine?" She asked.

"I'm okay~"

Taiga looked over at Shirou, staring at him evenly. "She says she's okay." The head of the household shook her head to interrupt Shirou. "We hit her with a car. She isn't doing that fading thing this time. And she says she's fine."

Taiga lightly pushed Shirou towards the hallway entrance in the back of the room. Her apartment had the sitting room up front, with a hallway leading deeper inside, which connected to bathroom, kitchen, and her bedroom.

"So, that means, you go to the bath." Taiga declared. "While you do that, I'll get you some new clothes. I had some of grandpa's men bring some when you two were gone last night."

"Oh yeah," Shirou nodded, remembering the few things they had gotten for his stay. "That sounds good to me."

"Yep, then we'll burn the clothes you got." Taiga said something outrageous, making Shirou sputter.

"What?! We can still clean them!"

Taiga's nose wrinkled. "They're too far gone. Plus I never liked the fact you always wear the same type of clothes. That isn't something a boy your age should be doing."

Oh dear, was this about the adoption situation?

"What, but I like it!" Shirou weakly defended, his footing unsure now. Especially since he really hadn't denied Taiga's request. "These clothes are sturdy. And they're pretty cheap too."

"Teenagers shouldn't think that way." Taiga ignored his protests, pushing him into the hallway. "So we'll get you some nicer clothing now."

"Uwa!" Berserker cried out. When the two humans turned to her, her eyes practically sparkled. "What about me? I need a bath too! Can I go with Master?"

"No!" Shirou bleated, turning bright red. "You're not taking a bath with me!"

Taiga's useless smack to her head didn't even phase her. Shirou's denial was what drew a betrayed look from the Hero.

"Pleease?"

"No! That's too dangerous!" Shirou was hyper-aware of Taiga at his side. "For various reasons!"

"I'm water and rust proof." Berserker proudly declared. The way she shoved her chest forward, making her dress rags shift about were pretty eye catching. The young girl caught onto Shirou's stare with a tiny smile. "I won't shock you~"

"Have some dignity!" Taiga finally exploded, bouncing a pillow onto Berserker's face. She bumped the side of her hips into Shirou, sending him out of the room and the conversation. He was eternally grateful - scurrying out of the line of fire. "You're a legendary person, so act like it, dammit!"

"Tch. I could bump hips with him too." Berserker snorted, looking off to the side with a pout. When Taiga glared, she petulantly replied. "What? Legendary people can't bump hips? News to me."

Taiga threw up her hands with a frustrated cry, storming to the bedroom to get their things.

Berserker waited until the crazy woman was gone before proceeding with her plan. At the moment, she was dangerously low on mana, but that would only really be an issue if she remained materialized.

Which really wasn't an issue for her!

An invisible and intangible Berserker rose to her feet, mission clear. It was far too dangerous for her Master to be alone. Especially in a bathroom. She would just have to monitor him.

For safety reasons.

*-*-*

Shirou's mechanically removed his bloody clothing. No real attention was given to the motions. He just let his body run on autopilot while he thought.

'I'm screwed up.'

Everything from the fire to the attack last night, with Shinji and Sakura's abduction and Taiga's offer to adopt him, were jumbling together in a nightmarish stew in the back of his head. Worse were the emotions.

Shirou was sure that he was going through emotional highs and lows too fast. He could feel himself start to wear away at the edges. It wasn't anything serious yet, nothing would ever compare to his memories of the day he had met his father, but he had lost his control. Something he was feeling incredibly guilty about, right now.

Letting the clothing fall in a pile at his feet, he was shocked out of his fugue when a loud thud echoed in the small room. Blinking to clear his head, Shirou knelt down on the fluffy white rug in Taiga's bathroom. A small, leather book stood out in contrast to the faux fur.

Was this...?

Shirou snorted, of course it was. Opening the book, he could see the pages of information that Shinji had tirelessly written down. He had even grabbed the book last night before everything had gone to hell when that runaway monster had attacked them.

Another sign that he was starting to turn into a giblet head.

"At least I won't have to take down the power-grid." That would lead to uncomfortable things. Like the brave little toaster. Or that amorous cell phone. The clingy electric blanket was also an issue in of itself.

Speaking of which, that was another thing he was going to have to address too, wasn't he?

Shirou groaned, frustration building up. Deciding to let his mind relax, he set the book away on top of the nearby sink. Afterward, he stepped into the bathtub, unwilling to delay things any longer.

Water splashed amongst his legs, the sound growing louder as he sank into the tub. Once it was up to his chest, Shirou let out a sigh of contentment. He lazily took in his surroundings, with the little bunny wallpaper.

The pink towels and lavender candles were just rubbing it in his face at that point.

"She is a girl." Shirou conceded. In a dry tone, he completed his sentence while staring at a jar full of bath beads. "Oh my god - it's full of stars."

"That's pretty mean, Master." Berserker's voice suddenly cut in. "Girls don't like it when they aren't appreciated."

Shirou immediately sunk beneath the water with a tremendous splash.

"Master?!" A shimmer began to form in the room.

"Gbkcht!" Shirou popped back up, hacking out soapy water, and rubbing at his eyes. Once he was ready, his voice came out in a bellow. "-Berserker, how long have you been here?!"

"It's fine. I've seen lots of autopsies in my time." The voice floated over to the side. Shirou immediately rolled to try not to be seen. "You don't have to worry. It's super cute!"

Shirou wanted to die.

"Berserker?"

"Yes?"

"Kill me."

"No. That's a command I'll never follow." Berserker's voice was cold. In fact, the entire room darkened substantially. The smell of ozone made Shirou's upper body rise from where he was trying to tactically retreat deeper into the tub, looking around with wide eyes. "Once a life is taken, it cannot be given back, Master. Not even Father could master defy death to that level."

Shirou felt sick to his stomach. He leaned forwards, pressing his chin against his knees. Being naked didn't really matter anymore.

"I really have been a giblet head."

"Huh?"

"I've been a jackass." Shirou answered. "Look at me, cowering in a freaking bathtub while the world burns. Making these kind of jokes to you. Just being plain-argh!" He angrily scratched at his scalp, messing his hair up and sending it flying around.

Silence answered him.

"Sorry, Berserker." Shirou looked up, relaxing his body. "I really haven't been a good Master lately."

Berserker's cry of disbelief was surprising.

"No! You've done everything you could to keep me in this world. And you did the same for my other selves." He felt something airy, ethereal, float across his cheek. "It doesn't matter what you've done, you're my Master."

Shirou began to smile.

"And you're not a donkey, either."

Shirou laughed.

"It's cute down there." Shirou began to sqwack as Berserker naively continued. "Much smaller, but that's okay. It's kind of scary if it was like that, you'd be horribly out of proportion! That's the greatest of sins."

The young boy reddened. It was a struggle resisting the urge to flee back into the comfortable, but rather stupid, habits he had been forming. They paid off as he spoke his words outloud, but in a terrible, somewhat spastic voice.

"Can... who was your Father again?" It was best to just direct all his ire, stress, and irrational desires towards that man. He could take it, the guy was long gone after all.

"Oh, that's right! Nice follow up, Master!" Berserker's voice pepped up. Probably because he had finally asked a question to get to know her better. "Father is going to be your father too someday. Tell me about your Father next, okay?" She dropped such dangerous notions down without care.

"S-so, who is he?"

"Why, he's the greatest of all scientists of Europe!" Berserker began, all sunshine. Her tone grew more energetic. "He was a graduate from famed Prague! And he's the one who mastered the flow of life and death. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't even exist. His name is Victor Von Frankenstein."

Shirou imagined she would have curtsied if she could. As it was, the love and enthusiasm in her voice just prevented him from reacting badly. The sensation of panic was strong, especially when his Berserker's identity shortly followed the speech. Perhaps this talk, as surreal as it was, had helped stabilize his emotions.

Well, either way, Shirou felt that the urge to spastically react was so last year. Maybe even two years ago.

So what if he had Frankenstein's Monster in the bath with him. So what if the Monster could probably see everything he was born with. That was fine, live life to the fullest. C'est la pie, or however that motto went.

It wasn't like Berserker was dropping stupid revelations on him left and right.

Like... uh, like King Arthur being a woman. Or something like that. He was too tired to think up of anything really outlandish right now.

"So, yeah." Shirou oriented himself, "My dad's name was Kiritsugu Emiya. He was a superhero. When I was a child, I got horribly injured, and if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be alive either."

Berserker's face appeared, hovering before him.

"I loved him very much. He was... everything to me."

She smiled, manifesting the rest of her body in a sitting position.

"Sometimes I wonder if he'd be proud of me."

"Of course he would be, Master!"

Shirou's cheeks turned slightly red.

*-*-*

Taiga silently rested on the wall next to the door. A set of clothes were in her hands. Clothing she had been playing with for the last few minutes.

Once she began to hear soft laughter on the other side of the door, she softly began to pad away from the door. The clothing was left in a neat bundle next to the bathroom entrance.

Inside, Berserker was throwing her arms animatedly into the air while in the midst of her own anecdote. Shirou was occasionally shaking his head, making his own gestures in response. Berserker pouted once when he gave her a thumbs down.

In another part of town, a panicking middle eastern man escaped from an abandoned mansion. Simultaneously, a dark girl living in a shrine frowned, having seen the man's desperate escape through the eyes of a dead familiar.

Her servant, matching the character of that girl, rose in response to the girl's silent command.

And a priest...

*-*-*

"You there!" A screechy, whistling voice called out. A pair of elderly men, one short and somewhat obese, and the other one tall and gaunt, called out to him. The taller of the two continued where he left off. "Where do you think you're going?"

Kirei Kotomine bemusedly watched them approach.

"Ah, I've come to speak to Shirou Emiya." The priest reached into one of his cassock's pockets, showing them paperwork from Shirou's middleschool. "His school listed Taiga Fujimura as his guardian."

The two men eyed him suspiciously in between glances of the paperwork. His name was typed in, and the stamp of the school's president was on the document. Not that they would find anything wrong with that form.

"Where's your ID?"

Kirei smiled at their visible frustration, and showed them his identification.

"The score was concerned, so they sent me to act as council, if it's needed." The priest began, sounding sympathetic. "To lose one's home right after the affair at the school. Terrible, truly one of God's many challenges."

The elderly men exchanged strange looks. Almost shameful ones, at that.

"Uh, right." The shorter of the two handed Kirei his paperwork back. "Taiga-chan's apartment is on the-"

Just then, a ringing went off in his ear. Kirei asked for the directions once again, but the elder's instructions were once again blocked by the ringing. The priest stood in eerie silence for a few moments, making the two men stare at him like he had grown another head.

"Excuse me." Kirei bowed to them, bringing his watch to his eyes. "I seem I'm late for a meeting. My apologies."

"Wait, where are you going?"

They followed Kirei out into the street, calling out to him, but the priest simply ignored them as he steadfastedly walked away. Several gazes turned towards them, but Kirei's poker face and straight back made the onus fall on the elders. A quick duck into an alley, far away from most prying eyes, and Kirei simply -moved-.

Neither of the elders even so much as caught the flapping tail of his cassock.

Kirei answered the communicator, tapping the device set behind his ear.

"Master Kirei, Ryoma actually found the Servant." While the communications agent sounded stunned at Saitou's once in a lifetime moment of competence, Kirei was left feeling disappointed. Disappointed in Emiya's prodigy - to think the apple hadn't even come close to the tree. Disappointed in himself - Gilgamesh would have laughed himself to death because of his sentimentality.

Angry at who had caused the disappointment.

"The Matou grow bold." Kirei spoke, stopping several blocks away.

"Sir?"

The priest's expression showed neither exhaustion nor emotion.

"Perhaps we need to remind them about their position, in regards to the Church."

"Of course, sir." The operator's words were fanged. "I'll get the word out, Master Kirei. We'll find those cockroaches, no matter where they went to hide."

Kirei hummed, walking in the direction of the church. His next question was casually asked. "Where is Misaya-kun? She wasn't waiting for me at the Fujimura apartment."

"I...don't know, Master Kirei."

"Hm, strange. Well, someone else will take her place in the front lines, then." He paused. The gasp on the other end of the line made him smile. The repercussions would be amusing to watch."Also, send her to wipe out the memories of two doddering old fools when she arrives."

The drudgery should reinforce his point.

"Y-yes."

Kirei tapped the device again, shutting it off. He would have to go arm himself. A battle with a Heroic Spirit wasn't something one decided to do on a whim. Fortunately, there were ways one could work around the limitations of the human body.

*-*-*

Night began to fall.

White chalk scrapped against concrete ground. Off to the side, torn pieces of carpet lay in rough strips.

It would soon be his hour. The time when magecraft would work best for him. At least, it would be if his friend's information was correct.

Lines curved, forming a perfect circle. The words of power, and symbols that represented the greatest mysteries of mankind were to follow. Powdery dust clung onto pants legs, sleeves, and several rags from previous failures.

Supplements couldn't be used this time. This circle was much smaller. There wasn't space to use the right size. Still, supplements shouldn't be needed if the preparation was done right.

A smiling woman, more of a young girl, stepped into the circle. The contents briefly burned green.

If he - no, if they succeeded, it was back to the front lines. The woman observing the ritual also knew this, keeping her council to herself. A boy was shown reflected in her eyes, placing his hands on two smaller circles within the circle.

The clock struck eight P.M.

"Trace on!"

The young girl opened her arms wide, letting her senses expand. Lights flickered, the room going pitch black before lighting back up. Countless lights on the floor and throughout the home, matching the one on the girl's stunted horn, glowed green in the dark.

This invisible tug of war continued for several moments.

Everything went dark.  
>Noisy complaints from their next door neighbors ensued.<p>

"Master," Berserker spoke up, her glowing horn remaining in the dark. The light bobbed in place as she shifted from side to side. Several rips in her dress began to mend themselves. "This is sort of embarrassing."

"You feel better, though?"

"Mmhmm~"

On the other side of the room, Taiga was holding onto coffee maker. The device was emitting a soft glow of its own, bringing her face up in contrast.

"Well, we can be the glow in the house home now." She brought herself closer, illuminating Shirou.

Shirou, feeling like he had just fought a bull, simply stayed on the ground. In the dim light of the sapient appliance, his eyes shined with victory.

"We did it, Shinji."

Taiga's eyes were hooded. "So, you're going, right?" She wondered, quiet in tone.

"Yeah." Shirou matched her mood, sitting up as he picked up the book. He rose to his feet after stuffing it into one of the pockets of his new jacket. "There's one lead we still have."

"Sajyou. They were at the school with you and Matou, right?" Berserker mused, looking out across the city. "My other self went with them. I can probably find them from those memories, Master."

"How?"

"Do it like a phone, of course." She fluttered her eyes at him. "Can I eat the batteries in some phone poles, please?"

Shirou laughed, walking towards the door with Berserker.

Taiga moved to his side before he could open the door.

"Hey." The older woman told him, with a hand on his shoulder. "Be careful."

She squeezed.

Shirou glanced up at her. "Don't take up my futon when you fall asleep. We'll be bushed when we get back."

Taiga smiled, and stepped aside.  
>"I'll watch out for him." Berserker promised, the glow in her horn dying out. She stuck out the smallest finger on her left hand towards Taiga. "Pinkie promise!"<p>

"My, that's a pretty serious promise, Fran." Taiga breathed out, taking her pale digit with hers.

"...Fran?" Shirou asked, turning towars the two of them curiously.

"I like it better than 'Berserker'." Taiga puffed out her cheeks. "It's way more cute. It fits a girl like Fran here."

Berserker sounded out the word silently, and finding it appealing, grinned at Taiga.

"Shirou's right!" She lightly tapped the older woman on the shoulder, drawing a confused frown from Taiga. "You really are a girl!"

Taiga froze.

Two people ran- no, walked into the dark that night. Fear held no sway over the duo because nothing that goes bump in the night was more dangerous than the tiger they left behind. Unseen behind them, a third figure stalked them from afar.

A cheap plastic yoyo, concealing material of immense value within, was casually spun about the girl's figure as she followed after her targets.

* * *

><p>AN: It's been a while, hasn't it? Sorry, but I had a lot of personal issues going on. Going to try and come back to writing now. I truly appreciate the time you took reading this chapter.


	15. Chapter 13

Fate/Stay Night and its spin offs are properties of Type-Moon, Nitroplus, Image Epoch. All additional references belong to their respective companies.

Chapter 13: Structural Analysis, II

*-*-*

The constant chatter of people she had known all her life flowed through Misaya Reiroukan's ears. Like always, they were composed, assured, and efficient on the line. Idle chatter was kept low, leaving the line open for important communications.

Besides, most of them were able to juggle between different bands of mental communication.

"Jiro, what's your location?" An older woman, Ai Reiroukan, her aunt and one of the managers of the network asked. "Have you secured the memories yet?"

Even if some of her extended family were ...odd.

"Roger, Central." Jiro, her youngest cousin, piped up. Misaya found herself smiling a bit, a brief thought of visiting him later. "Sakura Matou hasn't been going to school for the last few days. Doesn't seem like this is actually something new, so no one really noticed, over."

"Of course." Ai sighed. "Any hold outs left?"

"Some of the others haven't come back from the other houses. Maybe something good will come?"

"Should I ask about Shinji Matou?"

"He vanished the night of the fire. None of his friends know where he went, maybe with the exception of Emiya." Jiro sighed, sounding frustrated.

"Terrific. And Misaya hasn't reported back yet." Ai droned, making Misaya smile on the other end of the line. They could wait until she was done with her own pet project. Unaware of her thoughts, Ai tried to inject some hope into her voice as she asked another question. "Have the Sajyou been found?"

"It's the same situation."

Misaya lingered beneath a bridge, staying near the shadow as she watched the young Shirou Emiya steadily marching away. The communications went fuzzy thanks to the concrete all around her, making the alchemist frown. But a little bit of work and she picked right back up where the conversation left off.

"Taka," Ai asked, sounding exasperated. "I want to give Master Kirei some good news."

"Got nothing to give, Ai-"

"Central."

"Right, right." Taka sighed. The man was rather clipped as he continued. "Zouken Matou left on a retreat about two weeks ago. We're looking up information, but kind of hard to do that without setting off whatever traps he put into the heads of the people that helped him arrange his trip."

"Well, keep going. We need to see where he stands in regards to this Emiya-Matou feud."

"Alright."

Misaya started moving, putting the voices on the back burner for now. The boy that had caught Kirei's attention didn't seem particularly interesting. Not the sort she'd picture wandering outside at the dead of night when everything fell.

What she'd give to be able to use her prana to check, but she was sure it'd give her away in a heartbeat. Records had shown the Magus Killer had been able to track people with usage of their circuits, and she really didn't want to risk finding out if his son could do the same.

Misaya continued following the boy, keeping him in her line of sight, and amusing herself with how unguarded the Emiya was during all this time. Unfortunately, Misaya had to start trailing off further from the boy, since they were crossing into a part of the city that had its power-grid operational.

"That's ridiculous," Ai sounded enraged, the tone enough to draw Misaya halfway back into the conversation. "So you're saying a slip of a girl managed to summon a Heroic Spirit all on her own?"

"Just letting you know what I felt, there was something beyond human in there. The barrier's failure just makes it really apparent."

"Matou could've done that as a false lead..."

"Let's go ahead and stop that line of thought. It isn't productive in the face of Matou magic having been used at the Emiya home." Kirei Kotomine finally spoke up. "Until we get proof to the contrary, let's continue with the idea that Sakura Matou was the one who committed the fire. Possibly with something used from that modified summoning circle. We'll adapt our scenario around whatever we find afterward, agreed?"

"Roger!"

"Good," Kirei said. "Now, let's continue discussing what our countermeasures are going to be when we do run into whatever force we're up against. Especially if it's of the Heroic persuasion." Misaya let the conversation fade away as they began to talk about the Noble Phantasm under lock and key at the church.

It wasn't her department, so she really didn't care about the details.

Misaya shook her head. It was surprising to see the old man step up and take care. It was rare, but he was really good when he did. Most of the time he seemed perfectly content to let them do whatever they wanted. He was practically a walking paradox of a person sometimes.

Personally, that hands off attitude was the reason she stuck around Fuyuki.

'And you seemed to have deserved a special visit, Emiya-kun.' The teenaged alchemist thought. She had seen the hint of the disappointment when Kirei had returned. Left to her own devices, Misaya had immediately taken the mission of handling Emiya, now that he wasn't their priority. 'So, why are you so special?'

The alchemist continued stalking her target, savoring the pursuit.

*-*-*

Light twinkled in the distance, contrasting against the part of the city Berserker and Shirou were walking through at the moment. They paused long enough to allow a car to speed past them, spotting the city's emblem on them. The sudden fall of the lights in this district must have caught them completely unaware.

'Sorry,' Shirou thought, grimacing. 'We just keep making trouble for you.'

While pointless, the apologize did soothe his guilt somewhat. Not too much, unfortunately.

"Wow, they were going fast, weren't they?" Berserker asked, glancing over at him. "I wonder where they were going?"

Shirou shifted a little bit uncomfortably beneath her gaze, feeling it a bit piercing after their last conversation. "They're probably going to try and fix the lights. You went overboard again, Be-Fran." Composing himself, he answered as best as he could.

Berserker perked up at her nickname, but simply smiled. The understated reaction brought blinking from Shirou. Ignoring her Master for now, the Heroic Spirit tapped her lips, shaking her head a moment later.

"It was for the greater good. We have to check up on the Sajyou, and I have to protect you." Berserker insisted, nodding hard enough to send her hair bouncing. Shirou followed the motion, trying to see if there was anything unnatural about it. "So it's okay to be a little bit greedy this time."

Shirou couldn't really find any fault in Berserker's statement. Still, it seemed excessive to him. Especially since they had been walking for a half hour, and everywhere they went was still pitch black.

"So, they live around this area, right?" Shirou asked again, spotting a few people standing outside their homes, simply talking together. His partner waited until they walked past them before she continued speaking.

"Yes," Berserker agreed after a moment of thought. "I remember this area. Well, not me, but the other one." The girl seemed to be looking at focusing within when she answered, eyes slightly unfocused.

"What you were talking about before, right? An alter ego?"

"Mmm."

Shirou held back on pursuing that line of dialogue. Just like so many things that they still needed to discuss.

The Sajyou sisters came first.

*-*-*

Shirou felt like he was a thief; casing out the Sajyou home from far away.

Matters weren't helped by the fact that the city had restored power a few minutes ago. The magus didn't really think the neighbors would let him keep wandering around like an idiot for very long.

"You're over-thinking things again, Master." Berserker sweetly replied. "We should just go up to the door and knock!"

"If that doesn't work?" He asked.

"Uhm," Berserker paused, but then blinked. "We'll punch through it!" She declared, rolling her arm.

Shirou snorted, a smile appearing on his face. The weird sense of paranoia he had throughout the night began to abate slightly.

'Well, playing it out this way isn't going to help.' Shirou thought, coming to a decision. The young girl cheered as he confirmed.

"Let's go." Shirou said. He quickly added something on for the sake of diplomacy. "But don't punch things."

"Aww."

"Not yet, at least." The young boy's allowance made Berserker cheer.

Master and Servant quickly broke away from the stairs they had been sitting on, crossing the street. The Sajyou residence, like most of the homes in this part of town, were more western styled.

Several windows, covered by curtains, were preventing anyone from directly looking inside the property.

A iron rod fence, partially open at the moment, surrounded the two story house. Several large trees, a wooden play set for children, and large flowering bushes gave the place a homey sort of charm, unlike all the single story buildings that were nothing but yards and fences.

Pushing their way onwards, it was just a short trip across the grassy yard to get to the front door.

Hoping for the best, Shirou reached for the doorbell.

As its ringing faded, they stepped away from the entrance. The magus tried to stand up on his toes, attempting to look through the window along the top of the door.

"This is useless." Shirou declared, eyes flashing with repressed annoyance. "Woah! What are you doing?" He nearly leapt out of his skin when Berserker wound up walking through him, arms held out like she had wanted to hug him.

"I wanted to make you happy, Master." Berserker frowned, looking at her hands and then at him. A tentative swipe at Shirou's arm made her hand go through him. "Can I go solid again, please?" She whined, not liking the current state of affairs.

Shirou was about to automatically deny her, but an idea came to him.

"Wait," He held a hand up, ignoring Berserker's distressed noise. "Can you get inside and open it up for me?"

Berserker blinked, quirking her head. She had an expectant expression on her face, eyebrows slanted downwards in annoyance.

"...you can become solid when we're inside, okay?" Shirou allowed. Berserker eagerly nodded in return, and threw herself at the door; her body rippling in a disorienting fashion as it moved through the solid object.

The Sajyou already knew enough about magecraft thanks to the mess at the school. What was something else, at this point? They were going to have to know a hell of a lot more if he was going to keep them safe from whoever had taken Shinji.

Of course, to do that, he'd have to paint an even bigger target on them.

*-*-*

On the other side of the door, Berserker materialized. Her body grew heavier as prana started leaking out at a faster rate. Looking around, and seeing no one around, she did a little dance to celebrate being back to normal.

Smiling, Berserker turned towards the door and reached towards the brass knob above the doorknob. The door swung towards her, forcing her to step backwards, and allowed her Master inside.

"What was that noise?" Master asked her, drawing an innocent look from Berserker. "...okay." The young boy trailed off, staring at her and then down at her feet for a moment than the woman was comfortable with.

The boy quickly turned, shut the door, and locked it behind them. As promised, Berserker immediately took hold of Master's arm, pressing herself against him while they walked deeper into the building.

Her Master stubbornly ignored her action, refusing to let her weight slow him down.

Well, it wasn't like she was really trying.

'Being awfully cheeky for a harlot, aren't you? What kind of Servant even thinks the way you do?'

The nagger was back.

'You knew what you were getting into.' The price had been too much. The memories were useful, but... 'Besides, I handled that fight better, harlot.'

All that meant was that the cellphone was owned by a brute.

'Hah. Call it what you want.' Alright. So it was beginner's luck. 'Guh. You're shameless. I don't see why you get all the perks you do.'

My show, my rules.

Berserker ignored her inner voice. She made a note to ask Master what he did when the voices got too loud.

Master seemed to be looking inside an open door, having somehow pulled away from her while she was in self reflection. She plodded after him, peeking in over his shoulder.

It looked like a bomb had gone off inside the room. Most things were haphazardly thrown to the ground, furniture and other things just thrown about without care.

Several of the bookcases had been pulled away from the walls, but the books remained neatly placed within. Her eyes caught a flash of a wooden clock amongst the stacks, protected by dirt, wear, and tear by a glass box. The front of it was transparent, allowing all of its gears to be seen.

"Let's fan out." Shirou whispered, getting her to frown. "Something happened here." He pointed ahead of them, where two different paths split. "You take the east, and I'll take the west. Call out if you see anything."

While it was admirable of him to worry, Berserker didn't agree with the plan. She opened her mouth to deny it, and readied herself to carry him if he fought her on the point.

"Okay. Let's find your friends, Master." Berserker found herself agreeing. She blinked, raising a finger to poke herself in the cheek.

She hadn't meant to say that.

"Thanks Fran." The boy looked confused at her action. "I knew I could count of you when the chips were down." Master flashed her a quick smile, heading down his hall, and leaving a confused looking Berserker out in the open.

'Tch,' Her alter ego sneered. 'Total favoritism.'

Berserker whimpered as she looked forlornly after Shirou.

Tyranny.

'Whatever.'

Berserker sadly plodded off in the opposite direction.

So much for snuggling in a haunted mansion.

*-*-*

Sakura Matou had a serene look on her face. It was the look of someone at momentary peace. So long as she was another face in the crowds, she knew that they would be safe.

Meanwhile, her brother looked like he was practically falling asleep where he was sitting next to her.

One of the senior monks continued reciting his sutra, one of several resting ahead of them. Many other of the Ryuudou Temple's monks, including Issei, were resting around the sides of the room, observing the proceedings.

Shinji's head occasionally drooped whenever he knew he wasn't being looked at directly by any of the monks. Sakura could admit that the senior monk's carefully enunciated tone was rather dry, but she didn't want to be rude to their host.

Nor did she want Shinji to be that way either.

She reached towards Shinji.

"Don't fall asleep. It's almost over." Sakura whispered, grabbing his hand and tugging at it. Shinji immediately jerked awake, glancing down at her with a cross look, but she simply looked back towards the monks.

Shinji grumbled something under his breath and followed her lead.

Sakura couldn't really chide her brother wholeheartedly. The story that the head monk had picked up from the last person wasn't something she really cared about either. In fact, Sakura found it pretty trite, but she knew that they had to stay on their best behavior.

Magecraft could only do so much, and the pair of siblings could afford to draw only so much attention before her slapdash hypnosis was worked around. It was already bad enough that Assassin's presence was being felt on and off by the people that lived there. She didn't need them to add one and one together, and start asking themselves why it only began when Sakura and Shinji had arrived.

Sakura wasn't ready yet for the final, irreversible actions she'd have to do to keep her brother safe if that happened.

'Grandfather would have done much worse than me.' Sakura thought, venom coursing through her veins. What it was directed towards, not even she knew at this point. 'He has done much worse to other people. I didn't do anything bad.'

She wondered if Zouken had ever said those words.

The crowd shifted in place, bringing Sakura out of her trance, when the head monk wound down for the day.

Both siblings rose to their feet, knowing that they had to take care of other errands now. They left the room in silence, which Shinji immediately broke when they were out of earshot of the crowd.

"People don't change just because someone drones at them." Shinji groaned, his voice lost amongst the murmurs they left behind.

A glance back showed several of the adults had looks of deep consideration, tinted with confusion. It was the sort of look someone wore when they were trying to grasp, but had completely soared over their head.

"I bet they'd really like a reader's digest version." The older brother gave his opinion, making Sakura suddenly break out in a giggle. Shinji's follow up question caught his sister unaware. "What do you think?"

"A-about what?" She stammered, blinking owlishly.

"About our guests. I don't know." Shinji said, shrugging. "Just your general view on life. The universe. Anything. I want to hear your stupid voice squeak, I guess."  
>"That's mean."<p>

"Isn't it?"

Sakura frowned, but didn't respond. She couldn't speak yet, her thoughts about her current situation were still dying her opinion.

She peeked back into the room, feeling Shinji curiously look over her head a moment later.

Another group of people had risen from the crowd. Most of this part of the crowd looked reasonably well off, probably from the western parts of town, since they typically had more money to blow. They walked over towards the monks, speaking to them casually.

The Ryuudou Temple's residents reacted like they were speaking to old friends, smiling and laughing at whatever they were being told by the visitors. Both siblings watched for a few moments, and Sakura pushing up against her brother when they saw money being exchanged between the groups.

Shinji patiently waited for her, nodding to himself for some strange reason. A few moments passed, and he tapped her on the shoulder, and gestured towards an exit.

'Oh.' A strange sort of relief filled Sakura when he left the hallway, expectantly waiting for her outside. Shinji was just using this as an excuse to delay work. That was something that fell within her normal world view.

Sakura frowned, and marched out to drag him back if needed.

"No reason to hold back on account of them now." Shinji asked, bringing her up cold again. He chuckled a bit before continuing. "They aren't nearby."

Sakura simply nodded, her lips curling down as she considered her brother. Something about this bothered her, but she wasn't sure why.

"People are sheep." Sakura answered, her tone hesitant.

"Well, the group inside wasn't very impressive. I'm not sure if that's right, though." Shinji admitted, his expression neutral. "I think they just need someone to dumb it down. No need to call people names, Sakura."

He was deliberately misinterpreting her!

"I meant, someone is always controlling someone else." Sakura placed her hands on her hips, leaning towards Shinji.

"Well, yeah." Shinji's lazy acceptance made her blink. "That's called society, pipsqueak. If someone wasn't in charge, everything would be a mess. Then we wouldn't be able to think about such silly things."

Sakura blushed, body heating up in embarrassment.

"T-that's..." She looked up, but Shinji was patiently waiting on her. "N-not what I meant."

Sakura's words were trapped in her throat. The open look on his face stood out to her, a stark difference to the rage and hurt he had the night she had been forced to use hypnosis on him. She looked at the ground.

"If you do something bad, but it was for all the right reasons, are you still a bad person?" The words flowed out on their own accord.

"It wouldn't be my place to judge." Shinji hummed. He ran his hand through his hair, arrogantly finishing. "Even if I am a freaking genius."

Sakura clenched her teeth angrily.

"Nevermind, then." Sakura bitterly dismissed his words. The person in front of her was nothing but her personal sheep now. As he was now, Shinji couldn't give her the forgiveness she wanted. Sakura turned back towards the shrine, readying a call to Assassin, but she was stopped short by Shinji's arm on her shoulder.

She looked up, meeting his eyes.

"Everyone has their own circumstances, Sakura. But people aren't so simple as you think they are either." Shinji solemnly began. "Do you know what I think?" He didn't wait for her respond before continuing. "I don't think people are sheep. I think people come to these places or rely on others because they aren't quite confident enough to accept that they are their own people and can do things on their own."

Sakura stayed silent.

"If someone does something they feel is wrong, I think they should just get it off their chest to the nearest person willing to listen. Then just accept the consequences." Shinji left it at that, moving back towards the shrine.

Sakura stared after Shinji for a few moments, but was jarred out of her trance as a cold breeze blew past.

"H-hey, wait!" Sakura called out towards him, rushing after her brother.

*-*-*

The sounds of machinery echoed through the empty catacombs beneath the church.

Men and women rushed up and down the various subterrean paths beneath the city, moving strange equipment throughout the system in their arms, and looking so much like ants if anyone were to observe their movements.

The Kotomine Church was one of the entrances to the great system of tunnels. At that moment,Kirei Kotomine stood at attention near several graves that had been dug into the walls beneath his church.

The figures within them, long dead members of a faith he barely paid lip service to these days, silently rested within their final resting places. He wondered what they felt about what he had done to the system of tunnels they had created in the name of religious freedom. Would they be disappointed in him?

Kirei wondered what his father would have thought about him now.

Did it even matter?

Ai descended the stairway leading up to the church, and immediately lit up when she noticed her leader.

"Master Kotomine, I've been looking everywhere for you, sir." The alchemist announced herself.

Kirei looked away from the dead.

"What is it, Reiroukan?" The priest asked, sounding tired.

"We're ready."

Kirei blinked, looking intrigued.

"We've managed to figure out what the weapon reacts towards." The silent prompt made Ai continue in a more energetic tone. "It took some work, but we've managed to turn it into a weapon we can use."

"Can we use it now?" Kirei wondered, getting an affirmative from the alchemist. "Then let's move out."

"W-wait, Master Kotomine!" Ai shouted, seeing the man sweep past her, heading up the stairs. She helplessly called out after him. "You should stay behind the lines!"

"Just get me Misaya." Kirei countered. "That'll be enough."

*-*-*

"How do you think this is going to work?" A brown skinned alchemist asked, pulling a box of leather strips up to the truck.

"Either it'll succeed, or we'll all die." His partner, more japanese looking, answered.

"So, business as usual."

"Yep."

A pair of alchemists, the last of a team that had shoved a massive device onto the back of a truck, chatted amongst themselves. They moved amongst the blocky thing, using strips of leather with hooks on them to secure it.

"I don't think it'll be bad." One of them spoke up, grunting as he strained his muscles to hook one strip into position. "That damn samurai made it through the Matou home without losing any limbs."

"I'll make sure to tell Ryoma we use him as mining canary." His partner laughed. "I'm sure he'll appreciate the concern."

With the device secured, both of them quickly entered the truck, starting the engine.

"There's worse ways to go, I suppose." The more foreign looking of the two alchemists said, grabbing the wheel. "Having a chance to play with the great Victor Von Frankenstein's weapon already a greater honor than any alchemist in Egypt will ever get."

"Never been to the homeland. You probably don't even remember it. Stop being a poser." His partner snorted, buckling himself in place. "I don't care about the honor, to be honest. I only care about the size of the hole this thing can punch in those dicks."

"You lack romance in your life."

"I lack sleep. I want more of it once we handle this situation." The half japanese alchemist fought back a yawn. "Now gun it. I want this situation over and done with before it gets any later."

*-*-*

The night had managed to get even colder by the time Sakura Matou no longer heard patrolling monks wandering the halls. A glance assured her that Shinji remained asleep, her hypnotic suggestion keeping him under as she got dressed. Once she was ready, she moved towards the exit, sparing one final glance at Shinji.

He was clutching the blanket to his chin, shivering slightly.

Sakura left the room, her brother staying behind as she slowly closed the door. Shinji peacefully slept on, unaware of her passage as he clutched at the two blankets that covered him. The halls were dark, and the magus felt the hand of paranoia as she moved towards the exit.

Once she was at the entrance hall, Sakura winced when the planks beneath her feet creaked.

"Who's there?" Taro, one of the monks, called out from further down the hall. Sakura grumbled beneath her breath, body going rigid in surprise.

A whisper reached the magus from behind the door.

Sakura listened to the voice's silent prompt, reaching out to throw open the door. The tall monk arrived to stare at the girl in surprise.

"What are you doing up so lat-"

Mist poured into the building, in massive amounts. It unnaturally thinned out when it crossed the threshold into the temple, but it was enough to blanket the entrance hall, covering the girl and adult.

Darkness swept into the house, thick grain that stained and turned the fog grey.

The monk quickly looked around the area, shocked at the sudden transition of the weather, but his motions turned jerkier, slowing down, and finally stopping all together as he stood in place like a statue.

Sakura remained frozen in place, observing as the man blankly stared forwards. She felt another prompt, shaking her out of her daze.

"Thanks, Assassin!" She whispered. The magus picked up her shoes, and quickly retreated out of the temple, closing the door shut.

The fog inside the building dispersed, leaving the man blinking owlishly as this surroundings.

"Huh, what's going on?" Taro slowly scratched at his stubble, looking around stupidly.

*-*-*

Sakura rubbed her bare hands together as she descended the long stairs leading away from the Ryuudou Temple, wishing she had thought through her plan to run away from home. Considering this was the second time she was doing it, the magus felt she really should have planned things out better this time.

"Cold?" To her side, a moving blob of darkness asked, invisible to everyone but her.

Sakura wondered how pathetic she was if Assassin was asking. The magus shook her head in denial, teeth chattering slightly.

The distant lights of late night traffic could be seen running parallel to them as the magus arrived at the bottom of the staircase. Their headlights cut through the intangible gloom.

Assasin quickly knelt, the dark fog thickening around her figure in response.

"M-maybe you should take care of yourself first." Sakura responded through chapped lips, quipping back about her Servant's choice of clothing. Asssasin didn't say anything in return, but the magus could have sworn she saw the hint of a blush through the shadows.

"Easy to move in." The Servant cooly answered. "Doesn't bother me either."

Or maybe that was just her imagination, Sakura thought with a sigh.

The girls moved parallel to the tiny road leading up to the temple in mutual, companionable silence for a while. Eventually, Assassin breached the silence, a somewhat hesistant question in her voice.

"We're leaving uncle behind?" The Heroic Spirit wondered.

Sakura caught onto the implication easily enough.

"No, we just need to put some distance between us and the bad guys. We'll be back when we take care of them." Sakura answered, feeling more at ease about her goal now that she got to say it outloud.

Assassin relaxed at her side, following placidly.

Sakura wished all her problems could be so easily handled. Staying silent on further matters, the magus began to think.

Someone else had broken into the mansion earlier today, that was clear to her. So not only did she have to deal with Emiya, but she was going to have to track down whoever had snuck into the mansion too. She knew that her time was running out at this point, Grandfather's abilities wouldn't tell him everything, but he must know that her stress levels had gone up. Knowing how he dealt with things, he might have sent a familiar back to Fuyuki.

Sakura looked over at Assassin, and feeling the urge, reached into the cloud of fog. She heard a short gasp from the Heroic Spirit when she touched bare skin, but Sakura moved her hand around until she grabbed Assassin's hand.

"M-mommy?"

Sakura ignored the exclamation, squeezing the Heroic Spirit's hand.

"You're the strongest." Sakura assured Assassin, and herself. The spirit's hand warmed the magus' even as the flow of prana between the two girls strengthened. "We'll take care of all those bad guys, right?"

"Y-yes!" Assassin stammered, squirming inside her cocoon of darkness. "Y-you can believe in me!"

The magus silently topped her familiar's magical energies.

Yes, it was alright, Sakura still had this child. Everything could still work itself out in her favor.

They just needed to focus, and work past Sakura's mistakes, that was all.

*-*-*

They had spent at least two hours searching the Sajyou's home, but it turned out pointless in the end.

Shirou heavily sat down on a corner of a discarded futon couch in the basement. Berserker stood off to the side, having set aside another crate to reveal the rest of the room.

"Nothing's down here." Shirou began. "But I don't think they found them."

The girl said nothing, merely gazing at him expectantly. In turn, Shirou was focusing on the signs of damage on several of the items that had been stored away. Other people had been searching here, just like they had been looking through the other rooms.

Berserker finally spoke up, "How do you know that, Master? If you grab someone right, they can't squirm when you drag them away into the night." She wasn't exactly helping his composure with her cheerful advice.

"That's...great, Fran. Glad to know that, I think." The last part was slightly muttered. Berserker's smile followed Shirou as he stood up, slapping his hands together to knock off the dust.  
>"But I think Manaka would've broken something if she had been taken. I don't think she's the type to go quietly into the night."<p>

"Yes, she seems like a violent ap-" Berserker paused, and rubbed her head. Her brow wrinkled in pain. Once it was past, she smoothly finished, feeling glad that he wasn't focused on her during the lapse. "-Person to me too."

"Still, I don't think we're going to get far like this." Shirou glanced over at Berserker, but the girl waved at him to continue. "Someone else did the exact thing we did, but they couldn't find them. There has to be something else we can do..."

Berserker's eyes lit up, the girl balling her fist and lightly tapping herself on the chest.

"Use me, then!"

"No. I said change, not tear this place apart." Shirou automatically denied, causing Berserker to puff her cheeks in offense.

"That's not what I meant, but okay."

The ground floor of the Sajyou's home was still as quiet as a grave when they finished their exploration and ascended.

"Oh!" The girl gasped, her eye caught by something in particular.

Berserker immediately moved away, lifting her skirt with her hands to keep from falling as she quickly padded off towards a corner of the room. Shirou, following her, stayed silent as she paused in front of a cabinet filled with china.

"Fran?" Shirou blinked, pausing for a moment to take in his friend's actions. "What are you doing?"

Meanwhile, Berserker was focused on a small bronze clock set in between some dishes. Her curiosity had been rewarded. It was exactly like the clock she had seen in the library they had explored.

She carefully reached towards it, afraid she would break the glass. Her fingers carefully worked to undo the latch on the front of the box.

Shirou caught up to her.

"Look at this, Master." She smiled at Shirou, holding it towards him. Strangely enough, the boy was focusing towards her other hand. "Isn't this little one cute?" She wondered, shaking the small clock.

"Uh..." Shirou uncomfortably glanced from the empty glass case towards Berserker. "What's cute?"

"W-what?" Berserker blurted, expression falling at the perceived rejection. The clock felt slightly younger than she was, but there wasn't anything wrong with it! She moved the clock towards Shirou's face. "This! It's adorable! Isn't it?!"

Shirou leaned away, catching the slight hint of hysteria.

"I-I don't see what you're talking about!"

Just like that, Berserker stopped, blinking at her master in confusion. The girl pondered for a moment. She moved the hand holding her clock before Shirou, only getting his eyes to follow her fingers.

"A ha!"

Then she poked Shirou in the eye with the edge of the clock's base.

"Ow!" Shirou slapped his hands towards his face, pain flashing through his system. It faded quickly since it was minor, but his body instinctively slapped towards what had hurt him. He boggled as his finger's wrapped around the same bronze clock that Berserker had been holding all that time.

"Wha..."

Berserker jerked the clock out of Shirou's face and hands. Once she confirmed that her master was no longer in a slight daze, she quickly jabbed a finger in the air.

"A mystery is afoot!" She stamped her foot. "You couldn't notice this clock until I jabbed you in the face with it."

Shirou rubbed his eye, giving her a calculating look.

"Maybe we should find the rest of these first?" Berserker suggested, blushing just a little bit. Maybe she should've tried to figure out a better way of resolving the issue.

"You just want to goof off."

Berserker lips pressed together, and a slightly petulant voice answered his observation. "No, I don't. Besides, this is a new clue. It's important for us to check it out." She tapped the clock slightly against her chest.

Shirou glanced down at it, and finally nodded. There really wasn't any problem to what Berserker was proposing.

"Alright, I'm counting on you, then. Won't hurt to find them." Before Berserker could leave, he held out a hand towards her. "By the way, do you mind if I look at it?"

"No, that's fine." Berserker blinked. "Here you go."

She handed it over to her master easily enough, letting go of the glass case she was holding as well.

The clock immediately fell from Shirou's grasp, the boy almost jumping out of his skin when the glass shattered at their feet.

"Ah, the clock!"

Berserker quickly dove, moving with a measure of the frightening speed that Shirou hadn't seen from her since their first night.

On the other hand, the Heroic Spirit felt as slow as molasses. The lumbering swipe was devoice of the grace she was used to getting out of her limbs. While just fast enough to catch the tiny clock, an irrational fear flashed through her as her fingers instinctively tried to close around the device.

Berserker quickly lowered her other arm, cupping the time keeping device in her hands instead of risking destroying it.

All together, it had taken only moments.

"W-what-" Shirou grasped, clamping his mouth shut as he took in the situation. He took a calming breath. "No point keeping the glass case, right?"

Berserker nodded, surprised at the observation.

"Just... warn me next time you do that."

"Sorry."

Shirou shook his head, aware that it wasn't entirely her fault. "I'm the butterfingers. Thanks for catching it for me."

"Okay~"

They went to find the rest of the clocks.

*-*-*

As Shirou played with the clock he had been given by Berserker at the start, he quietly found some irony that they had been forced to double back to the basement. Once they had found enough, they were now inspecting the machines for any clues that they could use to find the sisters.

"It's pretty old." Shirou mused, feeling a strange sensation of weight as he inspected the object. For some reason, Berserker looked somewhat offended by his observation. He'd have to find out what he had done wrong another time.

His fingers ran along the wooden base, its surface cool to his excessively warm digits.

"Like me, they're not that good at hiding." Berserker chirped, lightly prodding at his side with another clock. Somewhat sadistically, considering the odd look on the girl's face.

There wasn't a reason to poke him with them now, he knew they were there.

"Is it about the age thin-"

Berserker poked him in the ribs. The clock she was holding onto had a rather pointy base.

"Oh no," She monotoned, interrupting him. "It's turning invisible. Please pay attention better, Master."

Shirou shut up; he had gotten the hint.

Berserker stopped prodding him so much when he turned back towards the device. He really wasn't sure what he could do - inspection of the devices were only taking him so far. Meager as his abilities were; he just lacked the training to be able to correctly interpret things about the inner workings of the devices.

"This isn't getting us anywhere." Shirou sighed, feeling his head begin to ache. The information he was getting from the surface reading was useless to him.

He needed Shinji here.

"What's wrong? Do you want me to try?" Berserker asked, setting down the clock when she saw the look on Shirou's face. She moved up to him, set down the bronze clock she was playing with, and laid a hand on his arm.

Shirou bit his lower lip. His eyes briefly flashed over towards her, and moved back to the clock.

Did he? His first reaction was to just say yes and give it over to her. She probably would be able to handle it well. She was able to handle machinery better than Shirou. Just like Shinji was able to take care of magecraft issues.

Just what was it he was doing, anyway?

"Yeah." Shirou accepted, handing it over towards Berserker. She took it with a hum as he explain. "I can't really understand this."

Couldn't really understand much of anything these days. Much less handle things on his own.

"Let me give it an looksie, Master." Berserker saluted, expression serious as she brought it up to her face. "You can rely on me!"

"Yeah." Shirou replied, voice soft. "I know I can. You're way better than me at that."

Berserker blushed, intently focusing on the clock, her energy surging into it to investigate it.

*-*-*

Magecraft was composed of a set of laws that had been carved into the world by mankind. The countless rules were beyond her; she had rarely paid attention to her creator when the subject had come up.

It reminded Berserker of her bizarre nature.

But that nature was going to serve her well this time. The magic had tried to hide from the eyes of magi, but it couldn't completely hide from her.

One of her eyes had shown her the truth. The very lovely, exotic, yet completely mundane right eye she had been gifted by her father.

With that, she knew the nature of the magic.

One thing she knew, and intrinsically understood no matter what - magecraft was primarily a science. Just like any other work of science, one could reverse engineer and defeat it so long as you knew the original purpose.

In fact, it made it even easier to deal with, since magecraft dealt with conceptual ideas.

Berserker began to enforce her will on the magic, the energy struggling against her as she began her work. The energy began to reassemble itself before her eyes, taking on a tangible shape. While the magic resisted her brute force, it willingly gave way as she reshaped it into something she could manipulate.

A hierarchy of names began to appear in front of her. At the moment, she and Shirou were most definitely not on the list.

Berserker reordered the information, creating a vast web of relationships and the various checks and balances listed to identify each person.

Once she had that, the spirit began to go through each and every one of them, trying to see if she could manipulate the variables.

With the right sort of object, she could fool the system into thinking they were another person.

*-*-*

"...why are you giving me this dress, Fran?" Shirou wondered, thinking his face was going to catch on fire. He was probably literally going to catch on fire if Ayaka saw the way Berserker had manhandled her outfit.

Berserker merely stared at him creepily, toying with the clock she had been staring at intently before.

He really wished she'd go back to looking at it instead of running around the house and bringing back weird things.

"Researching the barrier." She eventually answered in a strange tone. "Put it on."

"I'm going to hit you now."

"Pleeeease?!"

"Concentrate, Fran!"

*-*-*

So, with the easier ways of handling things removed, it was up to Berserker to go back to manipulating the information in harder ways.

Magecraft respected relationships.

Maybe the house would recognize them if they reenacted a ceremony the land had previously experienced.

*-*-*

"Since you don't want to be the harlots..."

Berserker held a bouquet of somewhat dried flowers in her hands, staring at Shirou intently. In her other, she had a pair of silver rings.

A picture frame, showing a proud young man and his blushing bride standing in front of the house in full wedding regalia and surrounded by happy crowds, was set on top of the table to the side.

"You'll be the mother." Berserker quirked her head, briefly glancing off to the side, unable to quite meet his eyes. "You cook better than me." She grudgingly admitted.

Shirou felt a growing sense of danger the longer he gazed at the expectant girl. Yet an incredible pressure was holding him rooted to the spot.

*-*-*

Perhaps not that sort of relationship. It was bad luck to use their vows for a false ceremony.

Eventually, Berserker simply brute forced two new entries into the hierarchy of names.

The Sajyou family gained two new children, and an assorted new history thanks to the spirit's manipulations.

*-*-*

As the oppression of the barrier vanished, they could feel something surging throughout them, filling in the gaps in reality.

It was insidiously subtle, the scope of the building's defenses could only been appreciated after the fact.

Shadows gained definition, the moonlight actually produced resistance if their stray limbs passed through a beam, and their bodies paradoxically grew both heavier and lighter at the same time.

If it was a man made object, it seemed to become duller, more fragile. However, there was something that made the lively environment seem to shy away from it; the mundane seemed both weaker and stronger for it.

Shirou wasn't sure how to put words to the barrier. The closest thing that came to mind was an illusionary world, but that wasn't right. Things had been normal - maybe even perfect - when the defenses had been up.

"Magecraft."

Both of them exchanged looks, neither quite sure who had made the observation, and set out for one final sweep of the house.

"It feels much better now." Berserker mused, and took a deep breath. The air, so strangely sterile before, now had a refreshing scent to it now. "It was kind of hurting me for a little while there."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Shirou asked, surprised at his Servant. On the heels of that, another thought came to him. Why hadn't he made her go intangible to save her prana?

Berserker answered his spoken and unspoken questions by taking his hand.

"You promised we could walk together."

Shirou fell silent.

"Master, looks like we beat everyone!" Berserker proudly swung their joined arms. "Look, look, it's their workshop!" She pointed out a particular door they hadn't noticed before.

The door was tucked in below the main stairway, clutching at the shadows of the main hallway.

Shirou breathed a sigh of relief, practically skipping to keep up with the taller girl as she rushed them towards the entrance.

"Ayaka, Manaka, we're coming in." Shirou called out to the sisters, reaching towards the knob.

Berserker jerked him back slightly, drawing a questioning gaze when she took hold and opened the door. It slowly swung open, revealing that the wood was simply paneling on the outside of a steel door.

If it had once been a workshop, it had been a long time ago. Signs of old furniture were apparent, but it was otherwise empty.

Only a single light bulb illuminated the room, making it look all the more stark in contrast to the rest of the house.

"Where are they, Master?" Berserker's empty hand lowered towards her dress, grasping the material over her thigh and twisting it.

Shirou let go of Berserker's hand, silently walked towards one of the walls, and pressed his hand against some skid marks along the surface.

"I don't know." He visibly chewed on his lower lip, tracing the scratches. He knelt down, peering at the ground. "But nothing was moved recently. The ground is clean. So we did still get here before anyone else."

Berserker let go of her dress at Shirou's assurance, meeting his hopeful gaze.

"Let's look around some more. There has to be some secret we haven't found, okay? Check the walls for any passages."

"Yes, Master!" Berserker chirped. She moved around the perimeter of the room, taking in their surroundings. The Hero traced a finger lightly along the surface of the wall as she walked, keeping half an eye on Shirou's back as the latter moved around the ground on his hands and knees.

"Fran?" Shirou eventually called out to her, even as he ran his hands in front of him.

"Yes?" Berserker asked, pulling away from where she was considering the wall. She wondered if she should knock on it. "What is it, Master?" She looked over at Shirou, but the boy was still facing away from her.

"Do you...have anything you're good at?" He wondered, making her blink in confusion. The silence made Shirou quickly add on an explanation. "Like something you take pride in doing well?"

Berserker considered, the motion accidentally causing her horn to scratch the wall.

"Eh." She winced, but Shirou didn't seem to notice. "Well, I'm proud that I was considered a Hero by your world."

Berserker lightly tapped the long line on the wall, almost as if apologizing, and moved away.

Shirou hummed in response, but didn't say anything else.

Curious about that, Berserker moved towards the center of the room, and to Shirou. The steady, dull clapping produced by the contact of her feet and the ground dramatically was interrupted by a loud crack.

Both of them froze in place, and glanced down at where Berserker was standing.

A thin, noticeable line had formed below the girl. One that was slowly spreading out at an alarming pace.

"Master...?" Berserker asked in a tiny, wobbling voice. "You better not tease me about this later, okay?"

The ground gave way beneath the girl, causing Shirou to throw himself down the hole after the shrieking girl.

*-*-*

"What is it? I'm busy."

It was impossible to get a sneer across audio, but it seemed like Misaya was trying her best to succeed at doing it.

Not that it really mattered to her caller.

"Master Kotomine has called for you, Misaya." Ai was unphased by the girl's temper on the other end of the line. She pulled her gaze away from the man, and moved to join her team. "Set aside your toys and come meet us by the market."

"Excuse me? What did you say, Auntie?" Misaya asked, eyebrows ascending in surprise.

Slightly away from her, the home of the Sajyou sisters remained silent.

"Oh, did you perhaps mishear me? I meant whatever project you're working on, dear. It's time for work now." Ai pleasantly responded, sweeping her hair away from her ear, exposing her communicator to the flood lights below the church. The metal stud set behind it was lightly tapped and rubbed as she went through the motions of adjusting it.

Several of the alchemists in the truck she was moving towards smirked at Ai, making the woman winsomely smile as she got inside the car.

"Everyone else is ready." Ai told her slightly troublesome niece. "We're mobilizing to take care of that naughty magus now, Misaya. Master Kotomine personally asked for you to come to assist him."

Misaya blinked at the declaration, shaking her head, causing her ponytail to brush against the roof she was resting against.

Well, projects were just called projects for a reason.

"Alright. I'll be there soon, Auntie." The alchemist acceded to Ai's demands, standing up. "Maybe I'll even get there before the lot of you." The shingles on the roof protested the action, but she ignored them as she fiddled with the hoop bracelet on her wrist.

"Doubtful." Ai smiled, relaxing in her seat as her truck began to head down the tunnel. "But I'll encourage you to try!"

Misaya ripped a segment of etherlite out of her bracelet, feeling her prana run through the material.

'I'll just leave this going away present.' Misaya thought, feeling the material stiffen into a needle. Sending her thought into the shimmering object, she sent it flying towards the yard. She'd retrieve it later, after everything was over.

The alchemist quickly bound away into the night, leaving the message behind for Shirou Emiya. One she personally hoped would cause the magus to show her why Kirei had been so interested in the boy.

She wondered if the boy would get to Sakura Matou before they took care of her?


	16. Chapter 14

"So, that's pretty much the majority of it, Sir Tohsaka." Machiko Ichinose finished explaining. The woman looked like a giant to four year old Rin Tohsaka's perspective, her long doctor's coat swaying low towards her.

Next to her, peering intensely at some documentation, was her father. "Right now we're planning on expanding the intensive care unit within ten years, but with your donation the process would be much more streamlined. It would help allow the hospital to help many more people..."

A rolling tower of metal and cloth moved uncomfortably close to Rin, making the little girl press herself against her father's side.

The man paused in his reading, and ignored the woman to peer down at Rin with a fond smile.

"Up you go." Tokiomi began, easily lifting the dark haired girl up with a single arm.

Machiko squacked in offense as he crumbled the folder of papers he had been given in the process.

The woman glanced tightly at Rin, but it went unnoticed by Tokiomi.

Tokiomi glanced back at the doctor, and smiled pleasantly. "Well, let's go ahead and speak more on this another day. I'm interested in hearing more, though."

"Of course, Sir Tohsaka." Her smile was a little forced. "And thank you for your consideration."

"No need to mention it," Tokiomi replied, waving it off airily. "The Tohsaka family has been in the care of Mary of Bethlehem for generations." He bounced Rin slightly in his arm, drawing a giggle as he looked her in the eye. "And we always remember our friends - isn't that right?"

"You have my gratitude." Machiko's smiled, her attitude fawning. "If there's anything I can do for you in the future, just contact me."

* * *

><p>"Still within acceptable levels." Machiko mumbled to herself, glancing at the test results on a clipboard.<p>

She almost sounded disappointed.

A nurse stood dutifully by her side, accepting it back as the doctor moved around Aoi. Machiko checked her vitals with precision and a sort of air of mechanical repetition.

The thin woman was terribly still in her bed, only staring dully up at the ceiling when Machiko pulled back her eyelid. "Have the nurses moved the patient for the day?" The doctor asked, pulling out a light to shine it into Aoi's eyes with a sigh.

"No, they haven't." The fourteen year old Rin Tohsaka replied, glancing at the nurse angrily. He winced, but didn't react overtly to the middle schooler's ire. "I kept asking, but they neve-"

"Nurse?" Machiko glanced over at the man, interrupting Rin.

The man glanced over at Rin, and looked quickly away at the doctor. "We were once we got through the higher priority patients. It's been hectic with all the new patients coming recently." The man sounded a bit uncomfortable, but he refused to apologize.

"Hm," Machiko hummed. "Well, yes. Take care of it as soon as possible." She finally acknowledged Rin, nodding at her and moving to leave.

Rin's temper flared, and she hissed. "Also, have someone escort Miss Tohsaka out when visiting hours are over. I don't want her to wander off into the construction areas and get hurt."

"Alright, ma'am." The man paused, trying to think of more, but ultimately shook his head. He flashed Rin an apologetic look on the way out of the room.

"Have a good night, Miss Tohsaka." Machiko said, nodding at the girl and leaving.

"Wait!" She called out, rushing out in the hall.

The older woman lowered her cell phone, having drawn it out of her coat when she left Aoi's room.

"I needed to ask you about-"

"No." Machiko cut her off sternly. "I'm not going to run those tests."

The girl cleared her throat in disbelief, which was ignored.

The doctor powered through her wordless complaint. "It's costly, and I don't see how it could help her."

"We still haven't gotten all the information we could, though!"

Machiko snorted. "Information costs money, and I don't think family discounts should be stretched that far, little girl. Please, drop it for tonight. I'll probably see you tomorrow, and then we can go through all this again, alright?"

Having said her peace, Machiko didn't even acknowledge Rin anymore as she turned and left Rin in her wake.

Was this really what her father had shared his hard-earned money for? She flew back into the room, turned with a flutter of her ponytails, and shut the door hard enough to cause the wall to tremble a little.

Rin let the vibrations soothe her anger, then pulled out a piece of chalk from her skirt pocket and began to scribble on the door.

"Fine, help them." She muttered, nearly breaking the chalk as she slashed it hard against the surface.

The magus felt a barrier go up immediately, keeping anyone from bothering her. Privacy assured, she walked towards her mother's bed.

"Leave it to incompetents to find nothing wrong week after week. We should've never relied on them in the first place!"

Aoi turned her head to face Rin with ponderous speed, drawing an swift death of the girl's anger.

"I'm not angry at you, mama." Rin spoke up, her word stumbling across each other. "They just frustrate me. I swear, if I ever run into someone that needs my help, I'll never turn them down."

Aoi blinked at her, a few seconds later.

Rin closed her eyes. Only a slight trembling of her fingers betrayed her building stress. She knelt down to avoid Aoi's stare and start scribbling on the ground beneath her mother's bed.

Her mother shifted above her, making the bed groan.

To think these people treated her mother so coldly, even after what her father had done for them.

It burned her, but Kirei wasn't able to come over nearly as much. Without anyone to speak out for her mother, it was easy enough for the adults to ignore her outrage.

She couldn't find it in her to pull the priest away from his duties, especially now that he had taken over her duties in managing the land.

'He's trying his best,' Rin thought, the chalk squeaking in the sudden silence of the room. 'So at least he's good for that much.'

Soon she'd be done, though. Then she'd have her mother, and Kirei could go back to being useless and ignored.

"Win, win."

Finishing, the Tohsaka girl pulled out a small crystal and rose.

"Don't worry, I'm still here." Rin brushed her finger along the older woman's cheek gently, noticing how gaunt she looked. "I just needed to finish something important." It was probably unnecessary to explain it, but soothing her mother helped Rin focus.

Aoi's breathing evened out. Her thin hand sought out Rin.

Rin looked down, gripping Aoi's feeble hand.

She wasn't sure what to think - years ago, her lower lip might have quivered, but she wasn't Aoi's little girl anymore.

The crystal was slipped into their mutual grasp.

"Father once said that I was a once in a century genius..."

Aoi responded with a hazy smile.

"Such a person surely won't fail." Rin's eyes flashed. "Trust me."

The lights flickered for a moment, making Rin angrily glance away from Aoi and out the window in the small room.

'What are you doing out there in my city, Kirei?'

* * *

><p>FateStay Night and its spin offs are properties of Type-Moon, Nitroplus, Image Epoch. All additional references belong to their respective companies.

Chapter 14: Settling Accounts

* * *

><p>The basement wasn't unique, even if the pit fall entrance was definitely unique.<p>

Well, the drop had been mercifully short. So at least neither of them had gotten hurt when they had landed.

Berserker held onto a battery powered lantern with a light grip, very much aware of how fragile it was before her strength. It seemed to be fueled by her own natural bioelectricity, or whatever passed for it.

"Are you sure you're up to that?"

Berserker smiled at her Master's concern, but responded by holding the lantern up high enough to illuminate more of the barren room. Some cleaning products were off the side, along with a discarded mop.

"I'm feeling better than usual."

Shirou blinked.

'That's strange,' he thought.

"Don't overtax yourself." he advised, cautious due to her reaction. "I don't want you collapsing or anything."

Berserker said nothing, making him frown in return.

The rays cast by the lantern swept through the gloom, allowing them to find several emptied tables and bookcases, all of which had a thin layer of dust. They pricked at Shirou's sense of cleanliness, but he wasn't so warped he'd break out the mop. If things were better, he might have done it.

"They were down here." Shirou picked up a discarded cell phone, which was already flipped open. A tap on it revealed its dialing history - it had tried to call another phone number over two hours ago.

'I wonder if it was the number of the phone Berserker rode back home?' he thought, deciding to check later.

"The girls left through there." Berserker pointed out, gesturing towards an ascending slope.

Shirou raised an eyebrow, deciding to challenge that. "What makes you think that? Not that I doubt you." He added, still trusting her enough to walk towards the slope.

"Papa used to have all kinds of escape tunnels." Berserker explained, the slight thuds of her legs following after him. "We always played tag whenever I found him. I was always the monster though."

Shirou shifted, his shoes dragging into the ground. Something seemed off about what she said, not quite as creepy as what she normally said, but it was still somewhat off.

'But, is it fair to stay quiet all the time?' he thought. 'She's a friend. Kind of a creepy one, but a good one so far.'

"Seems your senses aren't as good as you thought they were." he said, trying to guide the conversation back to topic.

Berserker giggled behind him, her breath rushing down the nape of his neck. "That's what Papa used to say all the time too. But I always got what I wanted." She sounded inordinately pleased with that thought.

She reached past Shirou, brushing her body against his, and lightly tapped the wall.

Shirou felt the magic behind it at the moment of contact.

Well, smell it, actually. It smelt slightly of raspberries.

Then he realized he was getting distracted again.

"Better to keep moving, right?" He threw in his two cents. The boy crouched by the wall, feeling at it. The surface was pretty cold, and slightly moist to the touch. "It's pointless to rest on your laurels."

"I bet he'd like you." Berserker declared. She wore a small smile on her face. "No one else besides you two really give me much consideration. Even then, Papa wasn't really all that nice to me like you were."

The boy glanced back over at the Servant, unaware of the look thanks to the light shining on his face. "Do you still have one of the clocks from upstairs? Thanks." He suddenly asked, and Berserker was offering one to him before he even finished his sentence.

"You think it'll open the same way?" She wondered, getting a nod from Shirou. "Well, be careful with it. It's a little bit nervous about what's going on. Especially with us barging around down here."

The boy held the bronze piece up, inspecting the clock.

"Later on, you need to tell me more about that. You can do way too many things I can't really get my head around, Fran." He mused, pressing the clock against the wall. The image of stone began to fade away, revealing a wooden door. It wasn't even properly locked, with a giant pad lock dangling off its latch.

He pushed it, and the door swung forwards, revealing even more tunnel beyond the door. How far out did this go?

Shirou stepped out, feeling the scent of raspberry fade.

"Explain what? It's just something that comes naturally to me." Berserker wondered, following outside after him. She wouldn't get her answer though, because she shivered when she stepped past the divide.

The Heroic Spirit swayed on the spot, and she dropped the lantern in her hand. It shattered, making her Master immediately pivot towards her.

Shirou was immediately by her side in the dark room.

"Fran!"

"I-it's alright." Berserker pushed his hands away, and then realized what she was doing. She immediately pressed his hands into her body. "Just felt a little faint when I left the basement. No, it's fine, I can stand up. It just surprised me, I'm not hurt." She insisted, moving away with a look of contentment.

"Maybe you should stay down there." Shirou thought about the scent. Maybe there was more to that basement that met the eye. It had even gotten the Sajyou sisters some measure of security against whoever had come after them.

"That's not fair!"

This time he hurried to deny Berserker, holding up a hand to buy some time to explain. "Whatever happened here already happened. Let me look around out here, and you can see if there's anything on this phone."

Berserker glumly took the phone from him.

"Check it down in the basement," When she gave him a look, he tried to talk through her sour expression. "Since you felt better down there. Come on, you think I want to separate? I'm not suicidal, besides this might work out better for us. You can get the drop on them from behind if you hear me shout, okay? I have faith you're fast enough."

"I'm not very convinced, Master..."

Shirou helped the taller girl up, and pointed towards the exit. Berserker grumbled, but followed the command. She was ignorant of how her Master glanced between his finger and her retreating back in wonder.

'Was it always this easy?' he wondered.

Then looked down the dark pit ahead of him.

Shirou grimaced.

* * *

><p>Since things were never easy, the tunnel's exit was several hundred yards away from the Sajyou's home, in the heart of a forested area.<p>

The trek through the lightly forested area was confusing, even with the help of the warm clock in his grasp. He was sure that he would've easily gotten turned around into a random direction, even with the Sajyou home right in front of him.

Getting out of the woods, he immediately searched the rest of the house's perimeter from the outside.

That's how he ran into that latest snarl.

"I wonder if you'll find this message? I hope you do, because otherwise Kirei's interest in you would be stupid." The silver spike Shirou had found out on the front yard gleamed in the moonlight, projecting the voice of a slightly older girl into his mind. He wasn't sure who she was, but she seemed to be interested in teasing him mercilessly. "Since you're a person of interest, I figured I'll share this with you - we've mobilized for the Matou magus. Better move quickly, or the party will be over before you get here."

Shirou gripped the object harder, the material slicing a little into his hand and staining it with his blood.

'Shinji!' he spun, rushing towards the basement to get Berserker.

* * *

><p>Downtown was just coming back to life under the flicker of emergency lights, and the number of people around was at an all-time low.<p>

Perfect for Sakura's needs.

"I'm going to test your abilities some more." Sakura decided, having exited one of the few stores that had their own backup generator. In her hand, she held a large bag.

"Alright, mother." Assassin answered, sounding enthusiastic about the suggestion. She asked for clarification only when they were alone by the loading bay next to the shop. "So, who will we be killing tonight?"

"No one." Sakura muttered.

The little girl blinked.

"I want you to manifest a solid body and pick the pockets of the people over by the coffee shop we passed." Sakura began, turning to face her servant. The younger girl was paying attention to her every word, drinking them up. Sakura's expression softened, the thin lines on her brow vanishing. "I want you to return here, show me what you took, and return it."

"Well," Assassin hedged, looking a bit unsure. "That should be fine, I think?"

"Also, wear this." The magus thrust a bag towards the younger girl.

Assassin's fingers gripped onto the suddenly offered bag with an awkward hold. She shifted the contents and opened it. Cloth rustled inside the bag for a few seconds as she pulled out the article from inside.

Sakura crossed her arms, staring at her Assassin with an even stare.

The pale haired girl was distastefully running a hand along the jacket she found. It was a light pink, and hopefully large enough to draw the eye away from the younger girl.

"Please stop fiddling around like that." Sakura spoke up when Assassin couldn't, or wouldn't, do anything else for a few moments. "You're going to draw attention." They weren't all that far away from foot traffic, and Sakura didn't want to risk getting them spotted. Even with how dark the area was at the moment.

"Will I wear this?" Assassin's asked, lip curling down in disgust.

'Because what you wear is embarrassing,' Sakura didn't say it out loud, and instead shrugged and consolingly smiled at Assassin.

"Well, you failed last time. Emiya is still alive." Sakura didn't miss the flinch from Assassin. "So, this is training." She bumped one fist into her other hand. "We'll get you good enough to sneak around that monster he has and finish that evil person off. Then your uncle will be safe, alright?"

Assassin looked at her with large doe eyes, nodding once.

"It's normal for family to give each other those kind of clothes." And the magus sweetened the situation for her servant.

Assassin perked up, looking over at the jacket with newfound appreciation. She immediately threw the jacket on, smoothing down the folds of her jacket over her body as she intently tried to become one with the piece of fabric.

"Yes." Sakura nodded, thinking of her class. "There was a girl who wore this really loud looking thing one time. She told us that it was from her grandmother." While she wasn't an expert on people nor fashion, she could at least see that Assassin was ridiculously easy to deal with. "It's a good test if you wear something bright on a night like this, right?"

Assassin nodded, silently and soulfully taking in the warmth of the clothes she was now wearing. Her chin brushed against the top of the furred collar of her jacket, bringing a slight smile to her lips.

"Yes, this should allow me to hone my abilities better." She mused, thinking it was probably going to be harder to be stealthy when the other side had to remain alive the whole time. "Thank you mother."

The piece of clothing practically swallowed the girl.

It justified the cost of the thing to Sakura.

"In the end, it looks cute on you," Sakura finished. She clapped her hands together, dismissing the matter from her mind. "So it's fine."

"Is it?" Assassin wondered, her blue eyes staring hopefully up at her mother.

"Of course," Sakura assured, though her words did not reach her eyes. "Now, let's head out."

* * *

><p>Sakura would stay behind to spot for Assassin, and the little girl would swoop in at the older girl's word.<p>

Looking between the wallet she held in one hand to the quietly staring Assassin staring at her near worshipfully, the magus idly wondered if this was considered corruption of a minor. Brushing it aside, she reached over, handed the Heroic Spirit the wallet back, and ruffled her hair before sending her back out.

'Well,' she thought, taking her seat at a plastic bench. 'This isn't the worst thing I've done in my life.'

She'd already done enough in the last two days.

Sakura sighed, knocking the back of her head against her seat to jar her depression loose. She had to think clearly.

Once she had her head back into the game, the magus sat a little bit straighter to look off towards the direction she had sent her Assassin. The girl was still having trouble approaching targets, Sakura wondered if it was out of some sort of agoraphobia, or perhaps paranoia.

The magus wondered if there was some smaller, or at least more enclosed, place she should be doing these practice sessions.

At the moment, their marks were sitting in front of some bushes, helping conceal Assassin.

Going back to the original matter: A few more people, college-aged like the original group, had joined them while she was musing.

They were probably planning on going to some party, or simply wanted to sit out in the dark of night for pleasure.

Sakura wouldn't judge, she was doing far worse things under the cover of night.

"I'm back, mother."

Sakura thinly smiled.

"Welcome back, Assassin."

And so, they continued training to murder Shinji's best friend.

* * *

><p>It seemed that their marks had decided to form a somewhat large coalition, and started heading off towards the direction of the river.<p>

'Guess they are going to a party,' Sakura thought.

"Are we going to go after them?" Assassin asked, "I think I could get a lot of good practice darting in and out of a group that big."

Sakura considered before finally agreeing. "Yeah. We probably won't find too many more people to practice on at this hour." Both girls started following after the group.

Their silence broke two minutes later.

"Hm, interesting. Out of the group, only three possess magic circuits. Out of those three, only one has any suitable for use." Assassin mused, having been staring at the group all that time. Her observation startled Sakura, who had been peering up at the skies - lost in thought. The little girl took the sudden motion for disapproval, flinching. "Oh, I'm sorry. I got nostalgic for a while. I'll be quiet, mother."

"No," She shook her head, interested. "Go ahead. How'd you do that?"

"I know." she insisted. Seeing that Sakura was only encouraging her, she continued in a steady voice. "My father taught me how to look for the signs of circuits, there's an elevation in the body's temperature. The beat of the heart is slightly different too, depending on the quality of the circuits and their number."

Sakura's eyes widened. "Really? That's a thing?" She brushed her hand against her chest somewhat uncomfortably.

Assassin nodded, not knowing what the gesture meant. "Father used to wander the back alleys of my birthplace, looking for suitable people to assist him using this technique. People that had good circuits were his test subjects, and fed and paid for accordingly."

"Even mundane people?" Sakura wondered.

"Especially." Assassin shrugged. "They didn't know better, and my father never told them what the tests were for."

Sakura frowned, thinking of why she was in this situation in the first place. "I'm not sure if I can approve of that." She could only appreciate the idea of keeping magecraft a secret only now that her brother's life was in danger because of it.

Assassin flinched.

"T-that... you shouldn't say that, mother." She bleated.

"Why? A lot of people could have been killed like that, if he hadn't been careful."

"That's how I was born." She whispered, looking down with a hurt look.

Sakura flinched. She clutched at her arm, pressing it against her side. An attempt to speak only brought out a strangled noise from her throat.

'Say something,' Sakura desperately thought, but nothing came to her mind. She wasn't a people person, and she could only fake it because the girl in front of her seemed worse off than she was in regards to social interaction.

"O-oh."

"Yes."

Both girls continued onwards in strained silence.

* * *

><p>"Mother." Assassin finally broke the silence, startling Sakura. "Something's wrong with those people."<p>

"Huh?" she looked.

The crowd ahead of them, which had gained a few more people at some point, were silently marching forwards.

One person tripped and went down, and wasn't helped up.

Sakura felt a chill run down her spine.

"Assassin, let's leave..."

The crowd ahead of them froze, and then began to part. A tall priest and an high school girl childishly playing with a yoyo were striding out of the group and towards them.

"Sakura Matou," The priest called out towards her in a strong voice, even as the girl next to him began gesturing towards the wooded areas next to the river. "I've been looking all over for you."

Multiple floodlights blasted out from the lightly wooded area next to the river, illuminating Sakura and Assassin from several angles.

Sakura felt the smaller girl quickly haul her up in her arms with insulting ease.

"Not yet!"

A gleaming blade with a short black hilt went soaring towards the two girls, but Assassin was already leaping away, easily dodging the projectile.

But it wasn't enough, as Sakura felt her body suddenly grow as stiff as wood and heavy as lead. Assassin let out a grunt of surprise, fumbling the girl in her grip, and letting her fall to the ground.

Both magus and servant collapsed, but only the latter rose to her feet with a look of fury as she spun towards the priest.

"What'd you do?!" Sakura gasped, not even able to move her head.

The priest smiled.

Five yards away, an inky spot illuminated by the floodlights had been pinned in place by a trembling blade.

"You've been pinned by magecraft." Assassin growled, tensing next to her master as more enemies moved out from the mob. Some flanked the man and high school girl, and others turned their focus towards the crowds.

Under the newcomers' direction and gestures, the crowd stumbled off, thinning out to nothing as they wandered off deeper into the woods or further downriver.

"Indeed." The man nodded. He quirked his head, observing the pale haired girl like a strange form of insect. "And even a Servant of your type would be hard-pressed to act in two places at the same time unaided. For the sake of everyone here, I would suggest that you cease resistance." He briefly looked down at Sakura's hand.

"Well, it wouldn't be fair if you left that quickly." The girl next to Kirei mused, gleaming strings curled between her fingers, almost at the ready. "We worked too hard to herd you both over here."

In the distance, the sound of a heavy engine roared to life. A dark shape rumbled towards them, smashing apart vegetation noisily. Sparks of electricity could be seen gathering on top of the object.

"I'm a little surprised, though." The priest mused, shaking his head as he took the measure of both of them. "Given the raw talent that your sister demonstrated under my tutelage, I expected that your situational awareness would be a bit better than it is. That the heir to the House Tohsaka would be selected on the basis of genetic bounty does make sense, though."

Sakura gasped, eyes wide. She felt her heart constrict in her chest, and her body's temperature plummeted.

"Oh, my apologies. It is rather insensitive of me to speculate into your personal matters, isn't it?" Nodding at her with what felt to be faux courtesy, the man narrowed his eyes and smiled. The girl next to him scoffed, apparently keeping herself just shy of laughter "But as I have indeed approached you on official business tonight, let me introduce myself. My name is Kirei Kotomine, and I am an administrator dispatched by the Church to act as an overseer for the coming Heaven's Feel ritual."

Sakura shuddered, causing Assassin to bare her teeth at the man. He simply smiled a little bit wider.

"I...by what..." Sakura couldn't even begin to find a way to approach the situation. "Why are you here?!"

"I am here to exercise a disciplinary measure against illegal actions undertaken by a recognized Master prior to the formal opening of the War."

"You've been a naughty magus, Matou." Misaya chided. "You've been blatantly risking our cover for a while now. First the continuous use of magecraft both on the city's power grid, and by your brother's school, then you wrap it all up with a blatant attack on the Emiya home. If we didn't already know he was a magus, we wouldn't have been able to cover up those spells we found in the ruins. Don't think you can get away with it in this city, even with your old relation to the Second Owner."

"What are you charging with me exactly?!" Sakura demanded, sand thrown around as she thrashed. "I did nothing wrong! My servant hasn't performed any magecraft at all this evening. And I haven't done anything either."

A truck crashed out from the woods, spinning to a halt behind the priest and the girl. It looked to Sakura as if somebody had attempted to make a laser beam weapon from some kaiju film out of scrap parts.

Its barrel was pointed ominously towards them.

Kirei produced another blade from his cassock, taking a step towards them.

"It's alright. The other party involved in your petty dispute will receive due judgment in time. But until then, I feel you should have your toys removed."

"Get...get away from here, Assassin!" Sakura shrieked, squirming as she tried to free herself. She let out a frustrated shriek when the younger girl chose to squat down slightly next to her, drawing forth two daggers instead. "I don't matter, keep him safe!"

"No." Assassin shot her down, shaking her head. "We both leave."

"Loyal girl." Kirei mused, expression dull.

"But stupid." Misaya countered, with a pleased smile.

The truck behind them began to let out an intense whine, making the floodlights dim. Several of the men and women that had dispersed the crown rushed to it, casting their hands out. Whatever they did seemed to stop the whining.

Vast amounts of electricity visibly gathered in a sphere of destruction.

"Goodbye, Matou. I'll make sure Rin doesn't hear about your screw up."

The weapon fired.

* * *

><p>The darkness of the freeway broke, as the golden illumination of a car quickly caught up to him, passed him, and only left smog in its wake. The swiftly retreating red lights on its rear of it faded from his sight.<p>

His car was one of the few still driving onwards. The hour was late, and many had either already arrived at their destination, or the drivers had stopped along the way to rest for the evening.

The rear mirror was adjusted, revealing the driver's deathly pale face. Purpling bruises could faintly be seen beneath the collar of his shirt. A hint of blue lightly dusted his lips, which turned up in satisfaction.

Up ahead was a sign revealing the upcoming exits.

Fuyuki was only a few miles away.

Something alien bulged out within his neck, stretching the skin. The song of insects skittering filled the car's interior.

Back at his ritual site, observing from behind his man's eyes, Zouken Makiri's expression remained neutral.

The earth around him shifted, soil wrapping around the mass of worms and becoming one with them, buying the ancient master more time by deceiving the world.


	17. Chapter 15

Author's Note: Sorry for the delay on this one. It was especially bad because I had two/three contents worth of stuff written, and then the file got corrupted. I managed to recover what I could so I could post this to show I'm alive, but my betas didn't really want to reread stuff I had already created once.

If you guys notice anything bad, let me know. Sorry I had to return with something that's a bit subpar.

* * *

><p>Kirei's duty was to render judgment. Staring down at the heretical mage, Kirei declared her fate. "It's time to take away your toy, magus." Kirei said, "Then we'll find out how you made a mockery of this Heaven's Feel." Of course, their execution had already been decided long before Sakura and Assassin had crossed paths with the enforcers.<p>

The alchemist's weapon turned night into day as it roared and unleashed a crackling sphere of bluish white energy. It shone like a miniature sun as it sped towards Sakura and Assassin, it left a trail of fire as it flew across the night sky towards them.

Kirei observed it quietly, appreciative of the weapon's power, half covering his eyes from the glare, his assistant Misaya mimicking his gesture to protect her eyes. Even some of the alchemists who had built the weapon remained rooted in place, overwhelmed by the power of their creation.

Assassin nodded - recognition in her eyes. Now she knew why the Other hadn't used her weapon back in the mansion. She moved ahead, wind whistling in her ears as she threw herself towards the sphere. The possibility of retreating by herself wasn't even acknowledged. 'Please don't follow after me, Mother.' she thought, bearing her teeth and glaring at the light. 'Lets meet again someday.'

The sphere was unable to maintain its shape as it collided against the Servant, and ruptured into an expanding wave of electricity. A sound that nearly split everyone's eardrums ripped through the area, like a chainsaw tearing through metal. Many of the gathered alchemists threw their hands up to cover their ears, trying to escape the infernal noise, others collapsed, and one even vomited.

Sakura closed her eyes to ignore the world, and tried to clench her ears shut. She was frozen though, so the magus was forced to listen as her Servant died: Helpless like she always had been throughout her life. 'Then I'm next,' Sakura woodenly thought, briefly picturing her uncle Kariya. She wondered if he would have been proud with her.

She doubted it.

* * *

><p>FateStay Night and its spin offs are properties of Type-Moon, Nitroplus, Image Epoch. All additional references belong to their respective companies.

Chapter 15: Evaluation - Tools of the Matou

* * *

><p>Immediately after firing, the alchemists' weapon shuddered.<p>

"Get out of there, it's running too hot!"

"I'm trying to calm it dow-"

"Hit the deck!"

Several more shouts followed, and the men and women closest to the cannon hit the ground. Metallic shards flew through the air when part of their weapon was breached by an internal explosion.

"Get it under control!" Misaya barked, spinning away from Kirei to try and regain order. The priest kept his gaze focused on their targets, one which was lying still. It had appeared that the attack wasn't enough to annihilate the Servant. "You managed to tame a Noble Phantasm, don't cower from it now!"

'Not without sacrificing some of its killing potential,' Kirei thought. He wondered if the unaltered Noble Phantasm could have taken care of the Spirit in one shot.

A few bold alchemists tried to approach the device, but froze when the entire frame trembled in protest. "We're trying!" One of them answered Misaya, ducking to avoid her glare. "But it's like it's got a mind of its own, now!"

"That's impossible. Wasn't it shielded to resist manipulation from anyone else? This is simply an error on your part!" Misaya said, denying it empathically with a sharp chopping motion of a hand. "Shut it down! I don't want it backfiring on us."

The cannon's compromised frame groaned, coming apart at the seams. Misaya's warning came too late.

Several generators feeding it noisily whined before going off-line, smoke rising from them. Lights burnt out along the river, cut off from their power.

"...too late."

* * *

><p>Moonlight reclaimed part of the river's bank.<p>

Sakura wasn't exactly a genius, but she knew something had happened - a sensation like prickling pins were racing down her back. Assassin had unintentionally returned feeling back to her body. She looked towards her attackers, trying to gauge their intentions towards her.

Kirei caught the look the magus was giving the body of her Servant. His body tensed, and he focused on the girl's eyes. They were too alert.

"Hey, wait. Where are you going?" Misaya asked, but caught the old man moving away. She acknowledged the looks of shame she was getting from her colleagues with a dismissive wave. "Lucky for all of you - looks like no speeches from him tonight. Get that thing cleaned up, and figure out a way to make it more reliable."

Misaya dashed after the priest.

'They noticed!' Sakura thought, chilled to the core. She furiously tried to squirm free. Whatever had happened to her shadow allowed her enough mobility to slam her cheek into the ground, and arch her back, but not enough to regain total control.

"Not so fast!" Misaya had caught the motion, and was smiling. "You're not getting away from the law, heretic! Stop or we'll have to shoot you again!" She was practically chewing the surroundings with her bombastic performance.

Kirei sighed, and shook his head.

Sakura's pulse thundered in her ears, she realized she was caught before she could even escape.

Misaya paused in mid-stride.

'That's sad. She'd probably curl up if she could.' Misaya thought, frowning at the other girl. 'That's pretty pathetic. I wouldn't bow my head to anyone.'

The priest didn't react at all - his neutral expression caused visible distress to Sakura. Underneath Kirei's stare, the girl desperately cast her gaze around. Sakura finally settled on looking intently at Misaya.

'Fluttering your eyelashes doesn't work on all your problems, sweetheart.' Misaya thought.

An anemic whimper was Sakura's answer to the cold look Misaya flashed her, but only when Kirei and the alchemist had walked past Assassin. The Heroic Spirit hadn't even moved at all, remaining still all this time.

'That Noble Phantasm really was impressive.' Misaya thought, nudging the girl. She was still dead to the world. 'You're not getting up anytime soon.'

At least not without their help. But by that point their analysis of the magus and spirit would be well underway.

Sakura flinched when Assassin was nudged. A look of devastation appeared on her face when the little girl didn't move.

'Ah, so that's what it was.' Misaya realized, realizing Kirei was patiently waiting on her. He was focusing on Sakura's face. 'Damn, the old man is sharp. He caught onto her before I did.' The fawning act was to make them lower their guard.

The priest drew a Black Key from inside his cassock, and flung it towards Sakura without further ceremony. There were no last minute rescues, not for the heretic.

Misaya was flabbergasted.

'Weren't we going to interrogate her?' She thought, unable to stop the line of thought.

Misaya wasn't a fighter. She wasn't trained to analyze a fight, nor was she able to read the intentions of other in combat scenarios. That's why she wasn't able to tell that Kirei had seen Sakura breaking down his binding, so he was going to reinforce it with another Black Key. The one he had just thrown would just barely miss Sakura's head and pierce her shadow.

It was unfortunate for Misaya and Kirei that Sakura wasn't able to read the flow of combat Sakura, the attack was nothing short of a deathblow. All consuming fear rushed through her, and raged through her mind like wildfire. Higher order thought was shut down before the primal realization of death.

There were places that one wouldn't venture unless there was nothing else to lose. To Sakura, who had never possessed much, falling to the bottom of the barrel didn't take a large , several options - many which had seemed beyond her moments ago, seemed within reach.

Unbidden, the words that grandfather had made a part of her surfaced, and she realized that she was speaking only after opening her mouth.

"I pledge ... to your sword ... my fate and destruction."

It came out in a raw, scratchy rasp. Almost immediately, her body was enveloped in a cool, moist robe of mist. Heat rushed to Sakura's throat and escaped her mouth, spraying out and dusting the earth. For the first time in years, the sensation of the tenants within her flesh was somehow alien. The worms and the rest of her body were disastrously going out of sync.

The sword pinning Sakura's shadow vibrated violently from side to side. The ground heaved upwards, and the blade was spat out.

Tendrils of darkness erupted out of the spot that the weapon had occupied, and the countless threads swept up and down the weapon was grasped. The Black Key seemed to rebel at the contact, and the blade began to disappear, but the darkness swiftly wrapped around the blade like a spider webbing up an insect.

The blade was trapped within filthy darkness.

This only took moments, so the shadow was able to swing the confiscated weapon, and batted away the twin which Kirei had thrown at Sakura. Repelled, Kirei's Black Key wound up biting deeply into Misaya.

The teenaged alchemist nearly collapsed with a howl as she was impaled, her eyes wide and expression growing slack and pale.

The shadow rushed towards Kirei.

Kirei didn't bother to look back at Misaya, bringing his arms up to block a wild blow from the Black Key manipulated by the shadow. His armored cassock was his salvation, because the force behind the blow was great enough to send him staggering backwards.

The shadow stabbed at him, and Kirei was forced to sway and dodge wildly as the Black Key went for several of his vitals.

"Get up Misaya, you can still move." The priest said calmly. The look of disbelief she flashed him was answered with a matter of fact statement. "Shut off your sense of pain. Bind the steel so it doesn't rip you open. Then help me subdue the heretic."

Kirei ducked, and attempted to strike back at the shadow. His fist swept through it, growing cold and wet. The priest winced as he was punished with a hammering blow from the side of a Black Key in return.

"Fuck you! You don't have six inches of steel in you!" Misaya hissed, clutching at the Black Key in her stomach.

The priest simply answered by moving away from her, exposing her to the wildly rampaging shadow.

"F-fine, fine! I'll help you, don't throw me to the wolves." Misaya groaned. She bit her lip, and forced her trembling body to stand up. Etherlite poured down her fingers from the inside of her yoyo. "Ugh, that witch."

The shadow pulled back from Kirei, and reoriented itself towards Misaya. Metal clashed again - Kirei blocked a stab to Misaya's neck with a fan of Black Keys.

"Stop complaining." The priest said.

Misaya gingerly laid a hand on the side of the Black Key. She tried to hold it in place while the etherlite wound itself tightly around the sword. It crawled up Misaya's body, wrapping around the exposed blade in several places before wrapping around her ribs. The fibers tightened and lost their luster, turning transparent when they secured the object.

The shadow towered over them, and brought the Black Key down on Misaya and Kirei's heads. They scattered in different directions, and the ground itself paid the price as the shadow cut deeply into it. The force of the blow was such that the priest and alchemist were left stunned, and a brief silence descended on the area.

Sakura took advantage of that lull, and staggered up to her feet. The magus flashed them a bloody grin, eyes flashing with desperation and something else. She wore a crazed half smile as she focused on Misaya in particular.

"Why do I even bother helping you?" Misaya said, in a remarkably cool tone of voice. Her knees betrayed her, and trembled a little.

"God's ways are mysterious." Kirei answered.

* * *

><p>A pair of men charged at Shirou and Berserker.<p>

They were sent flying away with a casual toss by the teenager, surprising both adults with her strength.

Their bodies slammed into and knocked over a generator behind them. This pulled a large light to fall over. Smoke and small flames spread, feeding off the grass next to them.

One of several that were already burning through the area.

Shirou approached Berserker from behind, and took in their surroundings.

Several burnt out generators and overturned lights were littered around the area. They were the husks of what Berserker had fed on while swinging the humans around so casually. Shirou worried that his Servant was losing power even faster.

Once he confirmed they were alone, he moved towards the two fallen alchemists.

"Be careful, Master." Berserker trailed after him. "Don't move too far away from me."

"I know, no need to worry about me." Shirou said, and knelt down next to the adults. He put a hand on them, and made sure they were truly unconscious. Once he confirmed they were knocked out, he then rooted through their possessions, removing any possible weapons. "I have a way of defending myself now."

A satchel he had pulled off another of their attackers was filled with a steadily growing pile of strange objects.

"Throwing strange objects at people isn't defending yourself." Berserker said, crossing her arms in front of her with a pout. "Just rely on me, and not on these silly things."

Shirou pulled out a small bottle from his satchel.

"I'd normally agree with you, but at least I know what these are." He responded, shaking the bottle of cleaning solution towards Berserker. It bubbled with the motion. "It just needs a spark from me, and it'll be enough."

Berserker silently nodded, but she didn't look very happy about it.

"Just don't breathe it." She warned, finally dropping her argument. "Do you think we'll find your friends soon?"

"We're making enough noise." Shirou shrugged. He wasn't sure if this was going to attract whoever had invited them, but they'd have to keep going until they found Sakura and Shinji. "Let's keep looking."

"Why don't I just help you both?" Asked an unfamiliar voice.

A middle aged man, elder to Taiga by at least twenty years, walked out from the underbrush. He looked harmless, his round, beady eyes only showed a healthy amount of interest in the two intruders.

"Were you the ones that caused all this?" The older man asked, but he had the air of someone that already knew the answer.

The older man knelt down next to a burnt out generator, tracing its surface with a finger.

"Who are you?" Shirou said, choosing to ignore the man's behavior. "No, that doesn't matter. What are you people trying to do?"

True to Shirou's observation, the man didn't look offended.

"We're running an experiment." The older man smiled, exposing yellowed teeth. He stood up, grunting as he stretched his arms behind his back. "It seems one of our leaders invited you, so I came out here to send you to them."

Berserker found her nostrils flaring, and her fists clenched before her.

Shirou was nodded, too swept up in his own thoughts to notice. "Where are they?" His asked, voice strained and body tensing.

The youth's restrained energy made the older man grin. It grew wider when the girl next to him mimicked the younger boy's posture.

"Quick, aren't you? Don't you know that only fools rush into danger?"

Shirou glared at him.

"They're down by the riverbanks, and they have our experimental subject there." The old man held a hand up, immediately surrendering. He sounded mockingly gentle. "Maybe you can get there before they finish with her?"

Shirou was already racing down the hill's slope, ignoring the man.

"Well, at least he knows what he wants."

Berserker immediately took a step backwards and to the side, standing in between the older man and Shirou's exposed back. The girl's fierce look was dampened, her eyebrows lowered slightly in thought.

"What is it?" He wondered. When Berserker kept looking at him, he frowned. The man's composed tone took on a slight edge. "Have you forgotten how to speak? If so, I'm done here. Farewell, and make sure to keep that boy alive."

"...why would you even say that to me?" Berserker blinked, a flush of anger on her cheeks. "Don't you dare threaten my Master."

He brushed his shaggy hair back, and started walking away. He vanished into the woods, but his words still reached Berserker.

"And that's why."

Berserker was left staring after him in confusion.

"Berserker, Sakura is in trouble!" Shirou's voice called up towards her. "I need your help! Let's go."

Berserker spun and followed after her Master, her body vanishing in a shower of sparkles. She didn't need to get tangled up amongst the brushes down the hill.

* * *

><p>The older man returned moments after Berserker left.<p>

"Much too naive, the pair of them." He said, and promptly coughed to clear his throat. "Still, it seems that the boy can exert a fair measure of control over the Servant. It should be fine if I leave things in his care."

The confidence he showed before vanished, and curiosity took its place as he knelt to inspect the men.

One of them groaned when he picked up one of their arms, inspecting it closely. The musculature seemed to be above the level suited for his needs, but further investigation showed that the man's body just wasn't that good.

No reason to use it, then.

He pulled out a knife, and set to clean up the mistakes of the children.

Once it was over, the old man wiped the bloody weapon against the grass.

'It's good to see that her abilities fare well in practical applications.' He thought, thinking of the girl by the riverside. 'I'll just have to make sure she survives the night.'

And to do that, he was going to have to inspect a certain weapon.

* * *

><p>Sakura swayed on her feet, staggering down the riverbank.<p>

Each step was laborious for her, and alternating flashes of heat and cold assaulted her. The sounds of combat raging behind her were ignored, or she would lose the tentative grasp she had over her circuits.

The worms' raging caused a flutter in her chest.

Sakura's surroundings blurred, drunkenly fading in and out of sight. She stumbled, stopping for a moment.

"Don't erode," she muttered. "Don't disintegrate."

Capitalizing on her distraction, Kirei dove towards her, bringing down a fan of blades.

Sakura flinched and lurched onwards while her shadow met Kirei in another clash of Black Keys, trying to direct him away from the magus' slow retreat.

Kirei - the priest's arms were a blur, deflecting her attacks.

Sakura shuddered.

'He's keeping up with us.' She thought disjointedly. 'How?!'

The other girl, Misaya, was trailing far behind him. Several strings of silver were stretched out between the two of them, making Kirei seem like nothing more than a puppet.

Sakura's ribs ached when she thought about how the girl had struck her down earlier in the night.

'No,' she thought to herself. 'Don't be distracted. Him first, then her.'

The wind swept through the riverbank, sending ripples along the tree tops and whipping through Sakura's hair.

Misaya was the first to feel the shift in the area. The strings trailing from her towards Kirei trembled. She could feel a swell of power was surging through the area. "Kirei, that magus is going to-"

Kirei grunted, acknowledging her.

Birds swept over them, their cries loudly echoing while the shadow crashed into Kirei again.

Kirei deflected the blade, and dove into the shadow itself. The temperature dipped as the world around him briefly went pitch black. He came out on the other side of the shadow, bringing up his fan of metal over his neck.

The possessed Black Key scrapped against its surface, throwing up sparks of light.

Kirei turned as he completed his twisting motion, and struck at the passing weapon with all of his in a single, furious blow. The counterattack thundered, and the girl's Black Key's surface cracked. Pieces of it fell to the ground even as shock swept across Sakura's face.

"We did it!" Misaya cheered, and her relief could be felt through the strings connecting the priest to the alchemist.

Sakura froze in place, and looked downwards.

"Assassin, wake up." Sakura said, her voice warbling its way out of her throat. Rocks shifted beneath her feet, and the magus drunkenly lurched towards the ground.

A fresh bout of pain helped Sakura focus, and made her hazy surroundings sharpen. Her lips peeled back in a pained scowl, and a quiet hiss escaped between her clenched teeth.

"I need you."

A pale arm thrust itself out of the shadow holding onto the broken Black Key.

Kirei was sent flying off towards the woods, stretching the strings between Misaya and him to their limit. Bushes and branches were snapped beneath his body, each blow carrying through his tie to Misaya. 'Her Servant?' He thought.

His body crashed into the ground with a sudden, bone jarring crash.

Misaya collapsed to her knees, clutching at her head with a low keening cry. Her vision shook, and she found herself slumped over on her side. The alchemist tried to work through the pain, but her etherlite limply fell from her hands as she passed out.

The strings connecting her to Kirei released their hold on the priest, no longer held in place by Misaya's will.

Another arm joined the first in pulling itself free out from the shadows.

The strip of darkness widened, and mist flowed out. It poured onto the ground, growing and thickening enough to cover Misaya's body. Tendrils of mist rose from the river to join the fog, helping it spread out quickly.

Kirei tried to rise to his feet, but his legs gave out. The priest winced as his hands fell to his sides.

"Heh," He laughed. "And that sets the stage."

Sakura looked up, breathing deeply and desperately to catch her breath. She took a step towards the woods to finish things, and get away before she was burnt out.

"Sakura," Shirou called out, alarm in his voice. "What are you doing?"

'Emiya?' she thought. 'He's here for Brother?'

She fell back a few steps, shuddering.

'But he helped us,' insisted another.

A sharp pain pulsed through her skull.

'He is the enemy,' concluded a third.

More and more voices flooded in, until possibility of consensus was lost. In the cacophony within her mind, nothing could be heard beyond the roar of a million voices.

Her body grew cold, and the pain vanished.

Sakura's hair flowed up on a phantom gale, and she shook like a leaf in the midst of it. Her shadow drew close, and more arms pulled themselves out from its depths. She gave an inhuman scream, the shadows coalesced and rushed towards the nearest target - a defiantly smirking Kirei Kotomine.

"It seems that you are unrepentant, Magus," he said, moving minimally to dodge the first onslaught. "I shall have to show you the mercy of the Lord."

If he were honest with himself, Kirei was nearly spent - but bodily exhaustion was never a concern when placed against the importance of the plan.

Shirou gasped, reaching into the satchel at his side. A glass jar filled with kerosene was extracted from within.

A spark of prana surged from his fingers into the jar as it was thrown at the shadow.

Upon shattering, it unleashed a firestorm. Kirei dove behind cover at the last moment, but the shadows weren't so lucky. The flame unnaturally clung onto the shadows, making them rage as they pulled up into the skies.

It twisted on itself, trying to smother the flames.

"Stop getting in trouble when I'm gone! You're only supposed to get in trouble when I'm here with you!" Berserker shouted behind Shirou, while a large chunk of a tree flew through the skies like a spear.

It struck true, and the shadow was sent crashing towards the ground. The flames that hadn't been smothered out yet fed anew on the wood, causing pained squeals.

"Something about that seems backwards, Berserker."

The Heroic Spirit bound over next to Shirou, looking between him and the shadow. "What did you do this time?" She asked, ignoring his statement. "It looks like the old timer needs help, right?"

Kirei, who had gotten away from Sakura in the moments of distraction, could be seen quietly mouthing 'old timer' to himself.

"Tell me what happened!" Shirou demanded, pointing towards Sakura. The girl was ghastly, blood soaking the front of her blouse. She pointed towards them. "We have to hel-"

The rubble exploded, and the shadow was unleashed once again.

"Cover yourselves!" Berserker threw herself on Kirei and Shirou, briefly crushing them under her weight. "No complaints!" She blushed, angry when she heard their groans.

The shadows clipped Berserker's back as they swept over her, freezing her in place as she felt death wash over her. She shuddered as she was pressed down into the humans beneath her. The pressure was so great, she feared she was going to turn them into paste.

Yet she felt her dress and hair were being pulled on, and the light tugs instantly turned into irresistible force.

Berserker cried out in alarm as she was ripped away. Three tendrils broke away from the main part of the shadow that carried her upwards, and started to slam themselves into the Heroic Spirit over and over again.

"Fran!" Shirou leapt to his feet, out of breath as he tried to pull another bottle from his satchel.

Kirei reached up and pulled him down, just in time to avoid having his upper body get ripped off as the shadow carried the struggling Berserker past them.

The near miss carried enough force to scatter them like leaves. Both men were sent into the depths of the river, and carried away from the battle.

"Master!" Berserker screamed, flailing around in mid-air. "I'll kill you!"

Sakura remained in place, dully staring up as her shadow wrapped itself around Berserker's limbs and began to pull.

Misaya, still concealed beneath the fog, stirred to life.

"Where's everyone...?" She groaned, looking around her surroundings with watering eyes.

* * *

><p>On falling into the river, Shirou immediately opened his eyes and cast his gaze around.<p>

He found himself disoriented, and his body upside down. The young man struggled to right himself, whipping his arms and legs furiously.

Further downriver, Kirei was almost out of sight. The older man was trying and failing to break through the surface.

Shirou eventually managed to right himself, and began to swim upwards to join Kirei. Just as both men were reaching the surface, a large shadow swept past them. A large tree, partially burnt and broken - the same one that Berserker had thrown earlier, crashed into the river. Water briefly swept down Shirou's throat as he opened his mouth in shock.

The pull from the tree's descent pulled both men downwards, and branches batted them. One of them struck Kirei in the temple, causing the priest to slump unconscious. Several gashes formed on Shirou's face and arms, bleeding out into the water.

His body temperature dropped.

Shirou desperately tried to swim towards Kirei, but couldn't quite reach him.

Another sizable piece the tree broke away from it, and slammed into the side of the river. Rocks and stones were overturned in a chain reaction. One of them rolled into Kirei's path, and caused the priest to bounce off its surface, but this bled off a significant amount of the lead that Kirei had over Shirou. The younger man grabbed one of Kirei's arms, and tried to pull him close.

At first, the priest was immobile, but Shirou swam closer to Kirei and took a look to see what was happening.

One of his legs were stuck between the rock and several chunks of wood. Shirou used the unsteady boulder as a platform to work himself against, digging his legs against the surface of the stone.

Bubbles escaped from Shirou's clenched teeth while he pulled with all his strength.

Kirei's foot finally gave way, and both men began to ascend.

They broke the surface, a somewhat blue Shirou desperately gasping for breath. He gripped Kirei's arm onto his shoulder, holding him close. Shirou kicked his legs furiously to carry them away from mid-river, taking uneven breaths when pieces of wood brushed past them.

Halfway there, a large piece of wood drifted into reach, and Shirou used it to help him prop more of Kirei's body out of the water.

Shirou glanced up at the sky, and went pale as he saw the clouds swirling over where they had been fighting Sakura's shadow.

* * *

><p>Kirei found himself coming back to consciousness violently, shooting up and hacking out water from his lungs. The younger Emiya sat on his haunches next to the priest, looking down on him with concern.<p>

Both men were completely soaked, and were lying on the ground next to the raging river. The wind over their heads was moving quickly enough to cause their bodies to instinctively tremble with the cold.

"You saved me?" Kirei inclined his head, bemused.

Shirou tried to nod, but his trembling caused him to stop his attempt. "I couldn't let you die." He instantly answered, no doubt in his inflection. The boy's teeth chattered when he asked a follow up question. "Can you help me save Sakura?"

'Interesting,' Kirei thought, studying the boy. 'Most would ask for help first.'

"The magus is rampaging right now. Just like a berserker, she's going to either kill herself or someone else. It will be very difficult to bring her under control without harming ourselves." He said, rubbing at his arms to try and get warmth in them.

Shirou's purpled face glanced down, but when he looked up, defeat wasn't in his eyes.

"I see." The younger man finally said. "Then there's a chance. Do you think you could stop her if I went in first?"

Kirei blinked, and the smile that spread was somewhat bittersweet with familiarity.

"It's possible."

Before both men could continue along those lines, Kirei felt the earring in his pocket vibrate. The older man blinked in surprise, pulling the object out of his cassock. Shirou stayed silent as he observed Kirei tap the device twice.

"-Kirei! Are you alive? Answer me!" Misaya barked, almost sounding frantic. "I swear to God-"

"I was saved only through the charity of another. Please learn from your emotions right now, and strive to become a better person." Kirei responded, drawing a disapproving look from Shirou. "You're pleasantly hardier than I expected, Misaya."

Misaya responded in equal cheer.

"It's questionable if something of those dimensions can fit down there, but I will take it into consideration." Kirei quipped, adjusting the device so any future shrieks wouldn't be loud enough to hurt Shirou's ears. "What's the status on the heretic magus?" He asked, glancing up river.

A group of clouds were swirling overhead, in a fashion that was could only be considered aesthetically pleasing by a child.

"She's trying to break apart that other Spirit." Misaya responded, heat having given way to cool professionalism. The alchemist's report caused Shirou to practically leap up to his feet in alarm. "The magic surging through here is insane. I'm not sure how she's still alive. Any other magus should have burnt out long ago."

Kirei caught Shirou's arm as he passed by him, holding him in place.

"Wait." Kirei commanded.

"I have to go!" Shirou declined, trying to shake the older man's grip. Both of them were half dead, so neither was gaining any ground on the other. "Both of them are in danger if we don't do anything!"

"Is that the Emiya boy?" Misaya asked, sounding interested. "You made it to the party after all!"

Shirou stopped struggling, recognizing the voice. "Wait, you said Shinji was here!" He growled, taking the earring from Kirei.

"That was a lie." Misaya said, pitching her voice upwards cutely. "I just wanted to see what you could do! Thanks for saving Master Kotomine, tee hee."

Kirei rolled his eyes.

"Tee hee?" Shirou muttered, disgust on his face. He willingly gave back the earrings Kirei silently requested.

Kirei released Shirou's arm. "Can we use the cannon?" He glanced over at Shirou.

The teenager looked confused.

Kirei noted the reaction and mentally filed it for later consideration. He'd initially imagined that the boy would have taken after his adoptive father in applied ruthlessness, but the effort Shirou had spared saving him in the river lowered the likelihood that he was the saboteur. It was, in any case, a matter he could return to once the present crisis was concluded.

Misaya hummed. "From what I'm seeing, it seems more like a curse than anything really tangible." She grunted. "I think the cannon could break it apart. Probably."

"So we can save Sakura and Berserker?" Shirou asked, eager to get the plan started.

"But there's a problem with that, the saboteur picked most of the people closest to the cannon off." Contrary to Kirei's expectations, Misaya didn't take the opportunity to rub reality into the young man's face. He wondered if she was slipping. "I'd have to remotely access it from here using one of their corpses."

"How long will that take?"

"Two, three minutes?"

Kirei grunted, brow slumped in displeasure.

"Hey, I'm not perfect." Misaya defensively replied. "And I'm wounded here. Give a girl a break."

"So, we're back to where we were." Shirou observed, the truth getting a quiet nod from Kirei. "How do we hold down a curse?"

"Light slowed it down, before I mean." Misaya observed. "Do either of you have anything over there that can make a flash of light bright enough?"

"I lost my satchel in the river." Shirou answered, glancing down in frustration.

Kirei considered, and reached into his cassock.

A thoroughly waterlogged Bible, and three hilts for Black Keys were placed on the ground between him and Shirou. Not the greatest of arsenals, unfortunately.

"I have an idea." Kirei explained his plan to Shirou and Misaya.


	18. Chapter 16

Fate/Stay Night and its spin offs are properties of Type-Moon, Nitroplus, Image Epoch. All additional references belong to their respective companies.

Chapter 16: Evaluation - Tools of the Matou II

* * *

><p>Sakura woke up with a start. She groggily rose, confused at finding herself along a riverbank. In her dazed state, she scanned the waters, trying to figure out why she was here. Her brow furrowed, and she bit on the corner of her lip while failing to come up with an answer.<p>

A splash directed Sakura's attention away from her musing. An alien sense of panic filled her, and she felt her body whip towards the noise. The fish that had leapt out of depths of the water promptly became a bloody mist.

Sakura stared at her arm; there had been a thrashing, inky blob that had torn itself free from her palm.

"Oh," She muttered, calmly watching what happened next.

It flew from her hand and stabbed into the fish, and then exploded in a squirming mass. The fish had no chance to survive as it was ripped apart from within. Gravity resumed, and the cluster of fish and dark matter fell into the waters with a dull plop.

Morbid curiosity prompted the girl to race towards the water, it looked like it might have landed in the shallow part of the river. The girl leaned towards the waters, scooping through the water to try and find the mass.

Sakura continued for a few more moments, but frustration slowed and eventually made her stop. The thigh deep water cleared, enough that she saw a massive shadow loom over her head. In her current mental, that was enough to set off her flight reflex.

"Ughhh," A low whine escaped Sakura's throat, and she scrambled away in panic. For a few heart pounding moments she thrashed about as she raced to the shores, but then she realized nothing had come down to attack her.

Sakura's arms fell to her sides. The embers of embarrassment were fanned as she realized she had been imagining things.

She looked up, dully moving.

There was a sphere hanging in the sky, acting like some sort of wound against the starry heavens. Thankfully, it was too busy being unnatural and not enough time falling on her skull and splitting it like a ripe melon. On closer inspection, the satellite was large enough to hold three or more adults easily. Disgustingly, it resembled an open sore in how it seemed to be oozing liquid. It gleamed in the moonlight thanks to the liquid, making Sakura feel bad that she thought of it as a sore. Now she was convinced it was covered in pus, making her feel slightly ill.

She didn't want to be here anymore.

Sakura rose, but in an unnatural drunken sway. She expressed her displeasure by clicking her tongue. The girl made to move away from the strange sphere, moving with leaden feet and soaking wet.

* * *

><p>The night had somehow managed to get even worse.<p>

"Dead..." Sakura dropped the limb she had been inspecting, watching it flop onto the grass and roll away. What happened here? The dead surrounding her didn't answer. It would have truly become a horrible night if they had.

"So many..." She muttered to herself, looking at the body count. It made her wonder.

Where was the person who had caused all this? More importantly, was she next? The only thing left were bodies and various pieces of scrap. At some point they probably were impressive pieces of technology, but the junk wasn't giving her any clues about what had happened.

Many of the corpses were burnt in various ways, now that she thought about it. Could it have been an accident? Some explosion? Was that why she felt so out of sorts? Sakura stared over at the arm she had been holding, focusing on the ragged tears along the skin. She doubted an explosion could have done this.

A breeze kicked in, gagging her with the scent of the blood.

Sakura immediately set off, warily taking in her surroundings. Occasionally, the grass would whisper dire warnings to her overworked imagination. She's immediately tense up, freezing in place like prey as she tried to look everywhere around her. The swaying branches were the hunter's arms, or a knife waiting to pierce her neck from above.

Relief surged whenever she was proven wrong.

Sakura hoped it just was simple gratitude, a hyper awareness of continued survival while surrounded by the sea of corpses. Guiltily, she began to slow down, taking a winding path around the corpses instead of taking the faster path that involved stomping through them on the way out. Unfortunately, her new path made her pass by many more bodies, allowing her to take in each and every method of execution they had been given.

Despite being seemingly penitent for already walking on several bodies, she never thought to simply take the longest way around - simply walking away from all the bodies by taking the edges of the clearing.

* * *

><p>A neon sign flickered over Sakura, drawing her attention. It advertised some sort of medicated powder; it'd probably appeal to her grandfather. He certainly was not so fresh smelling at times.<p>

Strangely, the sign was along the side of a hotel, basically covering many of its windows. The gawdy thing was too bright too, assuredly ruining the sleep of the poor people that rented rooms on that side of the building.

"Where are you, honey?" Someone called out. "It's too late. School's tomorrow."

Sakura tensed, moving towards the first bit of cover she saw. With her back towards a vending machine, she scanned the street. Pitch black storefronts and a rare parked car, nothing else. She grimaced, and privately wondered if she had just imagined the feminine voice in the wind.

"Hello?"

Sakura picked up her pace, taking the first intersection that she came across on the off chance that she would lose whatever it was that was pursuing her.

* * *

><p>"...What happened?" She asked out loud, chewing on her lower lip and looking around her surroundings with a blank expression. Sakura had just passed the federal library, but the building had no business being here. It was like someone had scooped it up and dropped it in the center of a food market. Large billboards pierced through the building.<p>

Several more foreign buildings were scattered around, warped as they tried to fit around the preexisting buildings. For every familiar structure, it looked like three or more buildings were trying to occupy the same space at the same time.

The hodgepodge was making her head hurt the longer she looked.

A flurry of signs in English and Japanese were plastered all over the walls, looming over Sakura. Their neon lights cast a terrible glare over the area, deepening the shadows at the edges of the street.

Her mind seemed to create a new and more outrageous form of death each time her gaze strayed to the shadowed alleys.

What had happened to Fuyuki while she was away?

Sakura had been aware of it ever since she had managed to escape the grasp of the tree lines and entered the business district to get away from the carnal house by the riverside. At first, the lack of people had been a good thing; she could compose herself. But now she felt terribly vulnerable, frequently casting her gaze back over her shoulder whenever she recalled the eerie voice that had beckoned her.

Stone clattered above.

Sakura was about to look up, but a burst of light flashed behind her, and a bell frantically rang for attention. Behind her, roaring up the street towards her, were several hundred pounds of steel. The girl shrieked, and attempted to get out of the way while an honest to goodness trolley sped towards her, sparks flying off rails that were being set down by it as it sped onwards.

Comparatively, the gunshot that rang out and would've clipped her if not for her sudden movement was far more mundane. Sakura started to run, hoping to escape down the self same alleys she had been skittish over just minutes prior. Escape was rendered moot, another shot came at her from a different direction.

Sakura collapsed, howling as her brain recognized what had happened. The skin had been frayed by the shot, muscles torn apart by steel. Her wounds pulsed with heat, weeping crimson over her clutching fingers.

She grew dizzy, whiting out as she fell.

* * *

><p>A small radio squawked to life beneath a pile of putrified bodies.<p>

"Mobilizing forces," It barked, giving marching orders to people that would never answer them. "We moved to flank the target. She's trapped in a kill zone now, and we've managed to hold her in place. Please move in to support us."

The sea of bodies spread as far as he could see, but he hadn't returned to the area for them. His focus was wholly on the unnatural fog bank that was approaching from the direction of the river. It moved like a serpent, swaying and twisting as it undulated past plants and made its way swiftly towards him. The mace in his hand shimmered, brief sparks of electricity shining brightly enough to keep the fog away from him.

Trace amounts of the vapor seemed to temporarily return motion to the corpses; as one of the bodies briefly convulsed. The observer's interest doubled as the body's motions grew harsher with continued exposure to the mist. Its undulations turned into wicked spasms, and the corpse's skin rapidly darkened as it turned chalky. The corpse began to shrink in on itself, curling as it began more boney.

By the time the mist was done, only mummies were left in the area.

The observer had no sympathy for the remains, stomping up to them once the fog had moved man knelt down, reaching for the black stains that had replaced the blood on one of the bodies. He brushed his fingers across one of the stains. A strange residue clung to his fingers when he pulled them back, rubbing it against his skin only told him it was chalky in sensation.

He brought up his fingers to his mouth, briefly licking at the residue.

There wasn't much left to study, nothing of worth remained thanks to the fog. He noted their advanced decay and stood up. There was no point dealing with the byproducts when the source was escaping towards the city.

* * *

><p>The alchemist's truck rumbled to a halt, puttering while it idled. Shirou and Kirei grasped the sides of the bed and swung themselves over its sides. One of their allies leaned out the window, focusing on Shirou.<p>

"Ya'll take care, alright?" She drawled, "Don't do anything dumb; you kind of got the general look about ya."

Shirou shifted a little awkwardly, smiling halfheartedly.

"I haven't done anything wrong," The teen protested. "Today."

She laughed.

While Shirou dealt with her attentions, Kirei ambled up to the driver.

"Did you secure it?" The priest asked, gravely serious.

"Of course. It took some effort, but we managed to slay the monster for its blood." The driver murmured, picking up a metallic canteen from the dashboard and handing it to Kirei. "Good luck, sir."

Kirei deigned not answer, returning to Shirou's side.

"I didn't know you could control people using magecraft," Shirou said, observing how quickly the streets were becoming empty. "Are they going to be alright after tonight, though? Something this powerful won't hurt them, can it? I mean, your people are forcibly controlling them, right?" He voiced his concerns.

They started jogging away from the truck, clearing a block within moments.

"It would hurt them less than being torn apart by a rabid beast would, I imagine." Kirei answered. Seeing the frown forming on Shirou, he placated the younger man. "It will be fine, young man. The scale is larger than normal, but it's merely hypnotic magecraft. It won't do permanent harm to anyone it's used on."

Shirou's ears perked up, hearing another of the alchemist's trucks drive down another street. He could catch a faint chime beneath the sound of the engine. More of those cars were driving all over Shinto right now, probably forcing everyone within earshot away. They seemed pretty good at what they were doing, and Shirou couldn't find any fault with their responsiveness for now.

The younger man reluctantly dropped the issue.

"So we're bait, right?" Shirou asked, "And Misaya tries to break Berserker out while Matou is busy with us?"

"Correct," Kirei nodded. "Matou already indicated an all consuming need to end your life on multiple occasions."

Shirou grimaced.

"-If we present you as she is now, she would abandon her attempts to escape to try and kill you. But even in the circumstance that your Berserker isn't freed in time, we won't be fighting alone. My people are on standby in the surrounding buildings, awaiting my signal to join the engagement."

Both of them took a corner, the residences thinning out as the street widened.

"So she really is possessed?" Shirou thought out loud. "You said that the library is being warded for spirits. That shadow that was with her attacked me at her mansion. It could be that which was after me all this time..."

"Doubtful," Kirei didn't seem to agree. "The Matou household breeds monsters. It just runs especially strong in that little girl. She had every intention to end you, and it came from within herself."

"That..." Can't be true, Shirou wanted to say.

"Is it because it's a child? Trust me, the young are just as capable of acts of great evil. That's why we must remain vigilant, and stop heresy such as this before they can spread."

"What about the Matou, then?" Shirou blurted. "Shinji never did anything like this. Can't you be wrong about her? What if she's being set up?"

"You're reaching for straws, young man. You and I both saw that she was very much a willing participant." Kirei took a sip from his canteen, thinking for a few moments. "But let me answer you - I know that my words are truth because I have fought them in the past."

Shirou stared, shocked at the admission.

"Yes, I too was a participant of the Holy Grail War alongside your father." Kirei smiled, but it was a wane expression. "That's where I found out how far the Matou family had fallen into depravation..."

"What's wrong with that? It was a tournament?" The young man interrupted, trying to get his head together and failing to do so. His father had fought in Fuyuki before? Was that why he was around when the fire had struck?

"Oh? What has become of the famed Emiya lineage? Your father was infamous for being prepared for anything. Tell me, you truly know nothing of the Holy Grail War?"

Shirou simply shook his head, feeling a little intimidated as the priest's eyes darkened for a moment. It was looking into an abyss, reminding him of the expression Sakura had worn the last time he had seen her.

The priest shook his head, and stiffly held an arm out towards a entryway to brace himself against the building.

"Kiritsugu hasn't told you?" The older man spat his question, irritated for some reason.

'No, of course he would not want to do that. He was walking around in a daze after the War ended. What sort of person - ah...'

"Are you alright?" Shirou asked, lips drawn tight in worry. He reached towards the priest.

Kirei shook himself like a wet dog, the sudden motion clearing the strange air about the priest. "The War is a competition between monsters." He said, almost to reassure himself. "The Master of the Matou family, Zouken Matou, is your friend's grandfather." It sounded like he was going to end it there, but he suddenly asked an additional question of Shirou, who had drawn away from the older man at his sudden actions. "Have you ever seen your friend's grandfather?"

Shirou shook his head, falling into the older man's pace.

"Be thankful for your good fortune," Kirei bowed his head, almost as if offering a silent prayer. "Zouken Matou is a master of insects. He uses them as familiars and his family's arts are based on them. As a individual, his ability to control them are at such a high level that you wouldn't be able to tell where he ends and the insects begin."

Shirou's brow scrunched up.

"You are probably wondering where I am going with this, aren't you?" Kirei wondered.

"Yes."

"Zouken Matou and the insects are one in the same." Kirei smiled at the look of concern growing on Shirou's face. "I know this because I fought him, through a proxy. Zouken Matou used his own son as a weapon for the Fourth Holy Grail War. He infested his son, consumed him from within, and drove him mad with pain."

"That can't be true!" Shirou muttered, shaking his head.

"Oh, but it is, young man." Kirei toyed with the canteen. "The longer a person lives, and the more a person bonds with animals, the less of a man's humanity remains, and I will tell you that Zouken has lived far too long. To him, his son was nothing more than a worker bee, to be consumed when necessary."

"But Shinji and Sakura aren't their grandfather..."

Kirei watched silently as the younger man's expression fell.

"Perhaps we can save her." Kirei stated out loud, managing to keep an even tone in his voice. The priest reached into his robe and took out a black nub. He began to play with the bladeless hilt as he sermonized. "We shall pray for her. Keep your thoughts pure and your heart strong. There may be a chance to break the chains the devil has over her heart."

Shirou looked up at Kirei, a bit of light in his eyes.

"Do you really think so?"

Noticing Shirou's expression, Kirei smiled, and offered him his canteen.

"Have some. I find that it steadies my resolve in times of need." At the prompt, the younger man took a curious sip.

The flavor that flooded his mouth with spiciness, and made the younger man gag. Shirou's body convulsed as he angrily wiped his mouth.

Some crimson sauce lingered on the back of his hand.

'Mapo sauce?!'

"I believe God rewards everyone as they deserve." Kirei smiled.

* * *

><p>"Sakura, can you get your father?" Aoi called out from the kitchen. "He's up in his study, taking a call from one of his friends. I want us all together before we cut your cake."<p>

The girl looked up from her book, nose wrinkling at the scent of food baking. Her stomache grumbled a little, anxious to have it all for herself.

"Just a second," Sakura called out, setting down her pen. A scribble of her jumping up a tree was left undone.

"That's not a 'yes, mother', young la-Rin! What are you doing there? You'll get burned!"

"Yes, mother." Rin cheekily responded, making Sakura giggle softly to herself. The younger Tohsaka didn't want to risk having her mother's ire turn back towards her.

The birthday girl made her way carefully up the stairs, listening with half an ear as Rin was lectured by mother. Sakura made a promise to thank Rin later. Maybe she'd like the picture she was drawing?

Up, and up she went, stubbing her toe on the same corner when she turned around and headed for father's study. Sakura winced, shaking her foot with tears in the corners of her eyes. The pain caused her to refrain from vocalizing her call to her father, allowing her to catch a snippet through the partially open door.

"-Sakura is well now, there will be no further need to- yes, thank you very much."

Sakura stopped rubbing her toe in mid-motion, ignoring the ache as her attention was drawn towards the conversation. She looked back towards the direction of the stairs. Once she confirmed no one was coming, she crawled closer to the door, and leaned her ear closer towards it to listen.

'I don't need something?' She wondered, excitedly spying on her father. 'Is it about a present?'

Some papers were rustled.

"This is not an appropriate subject for discussion over the telephone." Her father continued, faintly enough that Sakura had to lean up against the door. "If you like, I can arrange for other channels of communication."

His seat creaked, and Sakura held her breath. Daddy was getting angry. He never moved enough to make that old thing groan unless someone had said something wrong, and hadn't apologized to him.

"My arrangement with the Matou is not subject to change. I will have no choice but to exercise my authority as the second owner of this land if you do not desist in slandering my allies, irregardless of your ties with Atlas."

Sakura felt shame empathetically, feeling tiny and helpless simply by hearing the icy voice her father was using right now. There was a brief silence, making Sakura nervously wiggle in place. The pain on her toe was an afterthought at this point.

"Now hear here, do not presume that my family took no note of your interloping during the last ceremony. Heaven's Feel is safeguarded by all three families. I am not so lax as to notice the research you've been conducting in the city, but rest assured that those people..."

Sakura felt herself get yanked away from the door, staring straight into the eyes of an irate Aoi Tohsaka.

"Now, what could this naughty little girl be doing right now?" She asked, causing Sakura to gulp as a dark light appeared in her mother's eyes. "Maybe we shoul-"

* * *

><p>A steady clacking of metal on metal woke Sakura from her dream.<p>

The young woman groaned as she regained awareness. Fortunately, her return to consciousness did not bring with it the same idle-mindness she had been feeling all night.

Unfortunately, her surroundings were just as odd as the city scape of Fuyuki.

The inside of a turn of the century train welcomed her. Long pews towered over her head and spread to each side of the aisle she was lying down in the middle. The metal noise that had woken her up came a set of rings that dangled from the ceiling a few meters above Sakura's head, probably for passengers to grasp if they couldn't find a seat.

The interior of the compartment was occasionally lit that flashed through the massive windows set along the pews, but the source of the light was unknown.

Sakura almost wanted to cry.

'Why won't it end?' She clutched at her head, taking deep breaths to calm down. 'I just want to see Shinji again.'

The girl wasn't sure how long she lay down in the compartment, shivering in silence. However, she eventually caught a scent. It was smokey, smelling like trees and old things, like an old musty room. Her quavering slowed, eventually stopping, and she finally looked up from the safety of her arms.

A wooden door was opening up before her eyes, letting the scent through. Sakura couldn't see the person on the other side of the door, the brass ringed window was too foggy, but she could make out long hair on the adult on the other side. Maybe a woman? Whoever it was, Sakura didn't feel any danger from them.

"Uh," Sakura called out, standing up. "Hello?"

The woman on the other end of the door retreated, causing a spike of alarm to jab into her heart. Sakura quickly trotted towards the older woman, holding up a dirty hand.

"Please don't run." Sakura felt weird saying that after tonight, fidgeting and wiping her hand against her dress. The adult paused on the other side of the door, listening to her plea. Sakura nervously licked her mouth, trying to word her thoughts. "I-I don't, please. Where am I? W-who are you? Did you save me?"

The woman regarded her in silence from the other end of the door.

Sakura realized her error, flinching.

"Sakura. I mean, I'm Sakura Matou, please forgi-"

"I know."

Sakura knew who the woman was when she spoke, and felt her insides twist.

"You've become strong." Aoi Tohsaka looked serene, walking out from the shadows behind the door. "But I wonder, have you managed to grasp any happiness with that strength?"

Sakura let out a wordless howl of longing, throwing herself at her mother. She tightly grasped the woman, rocking from side to side. The young girl buried her head in her mother's thigh, rubbing her cheek against it.

Unnoticed to Sakura, fog billowed out out past the Aoi, swirling around mother and daughter.

* * *

><p>The familiar scent coming from the open doorway was ignored.<p>

Mother and daughter sat on one of the pews, child firmly planted on the older one's lap.

"Sakura, you have to keep going forwards."

"No." Sakura's grip on her mother's blouse tightened.

"I didn't come to chain you down." Aoi said, stroking her youngest head. "He's waiting for you."

"It hurts. Everything I do goes wrong." Sakura complained, burying her face into her mother's stomache. "Why should I go?"

"You didn't arrive here because of me," Aoi tried again, gently nudging Sakura's head to look up at her. "This is merely an extra benefit. It wasn't meant to be the only reason you're here. You must let me go."

Sakura looked away from Aoi, looking outside the window.

A swirling sea of darkness churned just outside. A plane of endless possibility, illuminated briefly by bursts of colorless light which winked out far too soon. Far in the distance, there was a mighty edifice, which only gained definition in that sea thanks to the light around it. A shimmering helix of light flowed into it, pouring into it as the lights died out.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Aoi asked her. "Your father spent his whole life searching for this."

Sakura's expression darkened.

"It looks like death."

"Or life." Aoi countered.

"Am I dead?" Sakura wondered. "Is that why I'm here?"

"No," The older woman shook her head, sending her hair falling over Sakura's shoulders. The scent of half remembered flowers pricked at nostalgia. "There's no thought then. No emotion. Only oblivion. Untapped potential. We all seek to harness that potential - each of us, in our own way."

"Mommy?" Sakura looked up.

Aoi's face was shrouded by a veil of her hair, the shadows within the train. Only a brief hint of her expression could barely made out. It hurt Sakura's eyes to squint enough to make it out. The train bounced both women slightly, revealing a downwards slant to the older woman's mouth as lights burst in the sea beyond their window.

"How do you think strength should be used, Sakura?"

"Wha-"

"Matou hurt you, but he could have done far worse, couldn't he?"

Images of Kariya's corpse being dragged beneath a sea of squirming flesh, vanishing as his body was turned into so much feed for the insects.

"Yes, for all his inhumanity, Matou used his strength with care. He didn't want to break you. A finely honed edge used to whittle the block of wood into the needed shape."

Sakura shuddered, pressing her warm hand against the cold glass next to her. Her fingers were printed on the glass, frost outlining the shape on the window. Another light died away in the distance.

"Your father's strength was a double edged sword," Aoi continued. She glanced down, hands falling to her sides listlessly. "He misdirected his passion. He wound up burning down the tower he built."

Aoi pressed her hand up against Sakura, covering hers and trapping it against the glass. The younger girl tried to move her fingers, but the weight against them refused to let them budge. Sakura grunted, flexing her hand against her mother's grasp, finally breaking free of it.

Sakura saw a ghost of a sad smile on Aoi's face in the reflection of the window.

"Mine could only be used to support others." The older woman murmured. "I probably wasn't very strong."

Sakura scowled, squirming on Aoi's lap. She faced Aoi, and immediately denied her assertion the only way that came to mind.

"Nuh-uh!"

Aoi chuckled, reaching for the tip of Sakura's nose.

"Don't worry. I'm not trying to undermine myself. I didn't have much, but the strength I had was all for you three. I wanted to see Tokiomi's dreams come true. I wanted to live a life full of love. Maybe even learn more about my birth family's arts and add them to ours."

The moment Aoi tapped Sakura's face, the entire train shuddered around them. An invisible force pulled the girl away from the older woman, overpowering the girl's attempts to thrash free. Sakura screamed for her mother, but Aoi's figure grew smaller as she was carted away from the older woman without any signs of stopping.

"And I'd move the world for you and Rin."

"No, I don't want to go!"

"Remember," Aoi implored, willing her words through with her stare alone. "The way that strength is used determines the outcome that you grasp."

The door slammed shut, cutting Sakura away from Aoi, as the young girl was carried deeper into the train.

* * *

><p>A masculine figure, who had kept his back towards Aoi the entire time she had been speaking with Sakura, finally rose. The crimson of his jacket bloomed like a rare flower, illuminated by the dying light outside the window, but withered away in the darkness as he stepped past Aoi and towards the exit to the compartment. Aoi remained silent, and simply watched his back as he followed after Sakura.<p>

She closed her eyes once he left.

And waited.

* * *

><p>Sakura angrily banged on the inside of the door, spittle flying from her mouth as she tried to gnash her way back inside.<p>

Besides the door in front of her, the entirety of the area was warped, the normal buildings of Fuyuki swaying drunkenly around her. Her surroundings sunk deeper into the fog. Old time light poles gutted out from the sides of buildings, bulbous and smelling of gasoline. They groaned and wailed, bleeding tar as new growths came out of them.

A vending machine bled foliage from within.

Some video store was sheared in half, the front half of the store turning into a cobblestone road.

Her surroundings weren't even trying to make sense now, and Sakura was tired of it.

The vapor refracted the light, bending her sight like one of those lens - fish-eye lens, a teacher had brought to show her class last month. They had all taken turns looking through it, laughing at the faces the class clowns had made while goofing off with the glass. Shinji had made a joke then, wondering how much her teacher had been putting on airs to show off her family's wealth, but Sakura had thought it was interesting.

Sakura froze, jolting like a squirrel struck like a thunderbolt.

Shinji...

"I left him alone." She croaked, voice whispery. "What am I...?"

Sakura blinked, realizing she was kneeling down in a puddle of mud. It had long since grown cold and hard beneath her. She raised her hands, shocked at how scratched up and bloody they were. The return of lucidity brought along further thoughts, which dazed her as she inspected herself.

'What have I been doing?' She felt grime in her mouth, and made a face.

The girl winced, staggering to her feet. Invisible gremlins hammered drums between her ears. Sakura mused that this was one of her more bad moments, while rubbing her head as she recalled the night.

Retrospection gave her new information, though.

Sakura looked at her hand, focusing on scratches along the surface. A viscous tar began to bleed through her injuries, causing the girl to hiss in pain. She didn't stop until she gathered enough material, clenching her fist around the small amount. When she opened her hand, a set of needles were in her hand.

"Tch. Strength..." Sakura closed her eyes. "I did better than that earlier."

Unfortunately, her experiment had to wait.

Lights shone out from the fog, sweeping wildly through the area. Something was waiting out there for her. No, it had to be those people from before. Whatever they had used to track her, it wasn't precise enough to find her through this fog. Sakura was a cynic, so she assumed they'd find her sooner than later through sheer numbers.

'What outcome do I want?'

They weren't going to let her get back home, not after everything she had done. Grandfather wasn't going to let her see the light of day if she did managed to go back with Shinji. Her sister, brother, even her Servant.

She had burned all her bridges.

"Was I wrong?" She wondered, rubbing her thumb against the metal in her hand. "What do you think, Assassin?"

Sakura didn't get an answer from the fog.

But that was okay.

"Time to go." Sakura took a deep breath. The air current shifted, pulling the fog noisily towards the girl. Puffs of condensed mist tried to escape from her, like living beings, but Sakura wouldn't have any of it.

As the mist was ripped away from her surroundings, normality returned to Fuyuki. Vending machines went back to being soulless dispensers of commercialism, buildings stopped their attempts at rivaling Van Gogh, the earth went back to being paved over by cement.

Her actions didn't go unnoticed, as the lights that had been weaving around were most definitely heading towards her now.

But it was not a one way street.

The mist churning in her belly had felt the presence of the boy that she had wronged, and the priest that had wronged her.

Sakura broke out in a heavy sweat, wheezing for breath by the time the last of the fog returned to her. She glanced down at her skin, and saw freshly healed injuries, pinked over flesh where gaping wound existed. The girl sighed in relief, and chose to ignore the brief puff of visible smoke that escaped her mouth.

The girl grasped the needles in her hands.

'I have to end it.'

"Sorry, Shinji." Sakura apologized, more for herself than anything. "I learned all the wrong things from Grandfather. No, I'm more like Grandfather than I expected. But I'm going to see you off to school tomorrow."

She charged into the night.

* * *

><p>Myouzawa Memorial Library was the name of the building that had been built in the aftermath of the Fuyuki Fire. A series of incidents had left the old municipal library open to looting. Not only had the library lost a great amount of its texts, but the building had been damaged enough to create a need for a new building to be erected.<p>

However, the city hadn't been very good with the appropriation of funds. The new location, stuck in the middle of nowhere, wasn't appealing since it was far from bus routes. It now sat as an embarrassment to the city council.

While it was certainly a waste of money, the large open area was perfect for their needs. Currently, it was hosted to a veritable platoon of mercenaries, alongside Kirei Kotomine and Shirou Emiya.

The youngest of the group wasn't too much into local politics, but Taiga had told Shirou that this building had been created in the wake of the city moving funds around to rebuild the district that had been burnt to ashes.

Curious, Shirou had asked Kirei about the timing, and the older man had gotten a strange smile on his face.

"There's all kinds of Heroic Spirits in this world, young man." He had left it at that, causing Shirou to think about his own Berserker.

The teenager was already missing her, but further consideration was paused. The stud earring that Shirou had been given was blaring a dangerous message. Sakura Matou, the little girl that had stuffed herself in his kitchen a few days ago, was breaking through their lines and heading straight for them.

The young man shifted on his feet, hearing several bottles jingle in the sack around his shoulders. One of the priest's spare keys awkwardly rested in his hand, distracting the teenager as he tapped his fingers against the flat of the blade.

"Let's see if Misaya's vanity is deserved." A stout man growled next to Shirou, lengths of coil rolling down his arms. "She better get that damn Hero back on her feet and here fast."

Kirei said nothing, manifesting a set of weapons he had called Black Keys.

Shirou angled himself so he could be the first to see the girl's approach.

Sakura was a blur, moving with a new strength, and darting around the gunfire. The magus charging them detonated one of the few mines that had been set down ahead of time, but somehow dove through the flames.

Her body was burnt, but remaining whole.

An alchemist was sent crashing to the earth, courtesy of a set of needles that Shirou could only barely make out.

'Her eyes are clear,' The realization caused Shirou to instinctively take a similar bearing to the priest he had fallen behind to stand with. 'She's serious.'

"That's fine."

Kirei briefly glanced at Shirou, who had just muttered that out loud. The priest watched in interest as the young man's stare grew smokey as he stared towards the incoming girl. What he saw made Kirei's lips curl up.

"Nearly everything that Kiritsugu left was burned away." Shirou said, stepping forwards past Kirei. "But I will carry on the most important thing he left me for many more days to come, Sakura Matou!"


	19. Chapter 17

Fate/Stay Night and its spin offs are properties of Type-Moon, Nitroplus, Image Epoch. All additional references belong to their respective companies.

Chapter 17: inflection point

* * *

><p>Rin Tohsaka ruffled her hair, messing it up thoroughly. She blew locks of it out of her eyes, angry at herself. The results, inscribed on the gemstones she had arranged on the table before her, refused to change.<p>

Another failure.

The structural features that she'd replicated from her mother's soul had again degraded to uselessness.

Rin had done all the prep work, and had deployed a fairly robust bounded field to isolate her mother from the outside world prior to the write procedure. It wasn't perfect, but with one anchor gem in each of the four corners of the room, Rin was able to replicate the information from her mother's soul into an array of gems without too much interference from Alaya. It would have been helpful if she could use her mother's mind as a reference, but the shambles that remained of her personality had become too broken over the years to be of much practical worth.

How could she revive her like this?

It was a catch-22: Soul and body needed one another. The flesh gave form to the architecture of the soul, but it was from the soul itself that the blueprint was to be derived. And yet, neither the flesh nor the soul inherently contained a complete schematic for the sum of their parts. The human that came to be was born of their interaction.

"What's wrong?" She demanded, past the point of frustration. "Is it spiritual contamination from the others? I already have the best room possible. There's too many sick people there, maybe. Or someone's lingering regrets."

Her complaints bounced back, mocking her with how empty they were.

Rin sagged back into her old seat, causing it to squeak. She silently felt along the edges of the seat. Gouged on it, and hidden from the world, was an old groove that Rin had accidentally put on the chair when she was small.

It had been back when her father was still alive.

The girl had tried to store a little magic in a quartz to pass one of his tests, when it had detonated on Rin. Father had very seriously asked her if she knew what had gone wrong. Flustered from both her failure and the damage, she had lied to Father and blamed the gem for causing the incident.

He hadn't been pleased.

The magus swore to keep the chair, as a reminder to never make excuses. It jabbed at her as she lounged in the chair, causing Rin to sigh as she shook her head. No, it wasn't an outside force that made her fail.

It was Rin Tohsaka's lack of skill.

She refused to consign her only other living relative to another broken existence.

At times like these, Rin became irrationally angry with Kirei Kotomine.

The girl threw out a skilled jab, causing air pressure to flow around her fist. Tightly packed prana was released, making it a blow strong enough to cave a man's chest if it was applied to the right spot. Kirei had made sure to point out just the right spots to the girl, with other helpful descriptions on how to break someone down.

'He can teach me how to fight,' She darkly thought. 'But doesn't know what I did when I was twelve.'

It was aggravating. It was a waste of talent. It was insulting that a man that her father had taken as an apprentice was both so wise and so foolish at the same time.

Kirei was a person who could have been a great man, but intentionally curbed his own growth. What he knew was shined to perfection, but he cared very little to learn things that didn't interest him.

Unfortunately, this meant that Rin had to teach herself once she had learned as much as she could from the priest. This left gaping holes in her education - holes that she realized could only be fixed by another magus.

Or even those alchemists that served Kirei, and worked with him to police the region.

Rin grit her teeth. She refused to beg for any aid. Her position was already terribly weak, and the last thing she needed was for a coup.

What was one girl against an army?

"At least I know Sakura is alright," Rin muttered. Yes, she would be well taken care of by the Matou. With a family backing her, she must be shining so wonderfully by now. Much more than Rin was doing right now.

The magus leaned forwards, pressing up against her desk and giving her upper back a rest from the unmerciful wooden back of her seat. She pressed her cheek against the book she had been reading. "She'll be starting middle school soon, huh?"

A copy of "The Form of Man", by Victor Von Frankenstein stared back at her. It remained as mystifying and obtuse as always. Yet that would never stop Rin Tohsaka from taking that knowledge for herself.

She'd get a perfect record of her mother yet, and save her with her own two hands.

If her theory on the transcription of the soul panned out, she'd be seen as strong. Strong enough to never worry about being overthrown again.

* * *

><p>Sakura acknowledged Shirou Emiya's words, but couldn't return them. All her focus was split between maintaining the haze clinging to her body, and staying just ahead of her attackers.<p>

Bullets grazed her, leaving itching reminders of near misses, and she responded with equal force.

Was this power?

Unlike her, they went down as her needles struck deep.

How terrible. She could see why grandfather had turned into what he had become.

Sakura zigzagged around their conventional weapons, wondering why she had so much trouble.

How wonderful, no one could ever hurt her like this.

The front line collapsed, and Sakura left a line of shattered bodies. She continued her charge, rapidly approaching a new line of defenders. Thinking they would fall as easily as the first, she readied her needles.

The dance renewed, with the same steps as last time, but-

Sakura's mouth gaped like a fish, seeing as a flurry of silver strings musically warbled in the path of her needles and knocked them aside. She tried to focus, but her pace was thrown off. Sakura paid for that as a truck came flying towards her from the side, bearing a heavy mass of flashing electronics and metals.

It skidded at the last moment, tires digging furrows into the grass as it just avoided plunging into the mist.

A bronzed love child of an old bullhorn and an eagle swiveled on top of the truck and screeched towards her. Sakura's world was rocked as the earth erupted beneath her, hacking out blood as she was thrown into the air. Her mist thinned to provide almost no cover to her as she wildly tumbled through the air.

The earth's pull caught her momentarily, dragging her back towards the earth.

'No!'

Sakura's legs trembled, and her joints squeaked, but she had managed to right herself at the last moment.

'Thank go-guh!'

Her relief was short lived, as the crack of a bullet tagged her.

Sakura's vision went red.

* * *

><p>A truck burned in the background.<p>

"Argh! Get her off me!" A blonde haired woman screamed, grappling with the monster. The girl opposing him growled, slowly winning their contest of strength. A gouging knife moved closer towards his gut.

At their feet was a discarded gun, and several well placed bullet wounds scarred Sakura's side.

They were slowly closing.

A set of flaming cords snapped towards her back, crushing cement into dust and unleashing a dust explosion.

While not fast enough to catch the girl, who had heard them at the last moment, it was enough to break off her attack. Her small figure flew into the air, raining smaller needles down on the shooter and her stout defender.

Shirou and Kirei took advantage of that moment, rushing the girl.

Sakura ran her hand down wounds and flung large spheres at them. Both men darted to the sides, breaking away from each other, as the blobs exploded into spiked masses. The younger girl tried to follow to put them down, but several shafts of silver crashed into the earth before her.

In the distance, a remotely controlled platform noisily churned as it reloaded and fired straight at her.

Sakura fired back.

Both were perforated thoroughly, but only Sakura managed to continue moving afterwards.

Footsteps rapidly fell upon her.

Kirei was before Sakura, popping out a punishing uppercut. Light exploded as her vision wildly went upwards, and her focus was shot for a moment. Long enough for the older man to step in and slam his elbow into her chest. Her bones crunched, and she was sent skidding backwards from the priest.

Mist belched out of her wounds, rapidly knitting her failing body together.

"Don't let her complete that!" Someone called out in fear.

Shots began to miss her as it thickened in response to Sakura's fear.

"I don't think so!" Shirou shouted, standing well away from her. She managed to lever herself up in time to catch him flinging several bottles towards her. A set of sparks jumped from his fingers into the bottles, causing them to violently explode above her.

Sakura hacked painfully, eyes feeling like they were boiling out of her skull when clouds of chemicals descended.

It clung onto her mist and refused to let go.

Only when her vision started darkening, did she decide it wasn't worth it to keep her healing up. She bellowed, blowing the mist away from her like a hurricane.

The force was enough to clip a few of the people attacking her, sending them down to the ground.

Sakura got a brief moment of pleasure when she saw Shirou get knocked back.

Unfortunately, Kirei wasn't deterred, and had managed to punch through her unfocused attack by throwing a series of Black Keys in front of him. The deadly missiles pierced the front wave of the attack and flew towards her vitals. Remembering the last time metal had pierced her, Sakura answered the attack with her own knives.

Steel rang against steel, blue flames bursting from their contact.

Both of them began to run in parallel, keeping each other in sight and flinging projectiles towards each other. They leapt over some bodies, neither particularly caring to check if they were alive or dead. Both rushed towards the fountain in the center of the library's plaza.

"You'll run out of those soon." She warned. "I can keep going all night. You have no one else left."

"Save your concern, child," Kirei said. Sakura's shoulder exploded as a rifle went off in the distance. "I still have backup."

Shirou lowered a scoped rifle, standing in the distance with a confused frown. At his feet were the pair of alchemists that Sakura had fought off a few minutes ago. The shooter was motioning towards them to Shirou.

The girl pressed a hand into her shoulder, feeling her wound bubble and churn.

Kirei slammed a fist into her gut, smashed her arm into pieces when she tried to defend herself, and smashed a knee into her chin in the time it took her to think on how much her shoulder hurt. He mercilessly kept her unbalanced, destroying her as she fell back.

In between bursts of pain, Sakura could only helplessly watch as Shirou rushed towards them.

"Kotomine, out of the way!" The rifle was brought to bear, and Kirei heeded Shirou's words. Her knees were destroyed, and she fell.

Mist erupted out of her.

The rifle resounded again, knocking her down.

Knives were brought out, but Sakura was slammed against the fountain by a powerful kick.

Mist. Shot. Fist. Scream.

Repeat.

Sakura's body was a shredded pulp of red, pressed up against the fountain. She still tenaciously clung onto life. But she was too weak to resist at this point, outside of a token effort of angrily staring at her killers.

"It's over." Shirou said, keeping Sakura's head in line with the rifle. "Where's Shinji?"

Sakura stayed quiet.

"Damnit, where is he?!"

"So you can kill him?" She sneered. "Like you are going to kill me?"

"What?" He lowered the rifle a little.

"Don't believe in her lies, son." Kirei spoke up, dragging himself over towards Shirou laboriously. "We have won. This is a final deception from her to turn the tides. We have to finish what we started or the lives lost until now would have been pointless."

"Is that right?" Shirou asked, searching Sakura's eyes for any sign of deception.

Sakura glared back.

Shirou threw Kirei the Black Key he had been carrying.

"Take it," Shirou said. "Purify her with this or whatever it is you people do."

"Thank you." Kirei sighed, a little bit too fast in his motions. "It is not nearly as effective without a blessed weapon."

The priest turned towards Sakura, eyes gleaming as he lowered the Black Key towards her.

Sakura closed her eyes in resignation.

A rifle clicked behind him.

"Hey," Shirou mused out loud, pressing the barrel against Kirei's back. "Maybe we should all calm down?"

"...I'm seeing a little of your father in you now." Kirei said, distaste in his tone. "What of our prior agreement?"

Sakura's eyes flew open, thunderstruck.

"Hi again," Shirou said. "I'm a magus. I'm also the guy that ate with you alongside your brother. Tell me what the hell your problem is with me?"

* * *

><p>Parts of the cocoon dried up under the flame, falling out in clumps.<p>

Misaya tensed, ready to throw her etherlite once Berserker was exposed.

"That isn't yours to take." A wheezing, needling voice said. Misaya and the alchemists cried out as a wave of electricity slammed into their unguarded backs, sending them helplessly convulsing. From the shadows of the woods stepped out an old man, hawkish expression pleased as he saw them writhe on the ground.

Misaya's eyes widened, watching him handle Maiden's Chastity directly with his bloody hands.

"Trai-"

"Good night." He swung the mace a second time, unleashing another burst of electricity. The earring he wore, an identical one to hers, gleamed from the flash unleashed from Maiden's Chastity.

* * *

><p>The cocoon shattered, dumping a dazed Berserker onto the ground.<p>

She looked miserable, dress shredded in multiple places.

Dark splots on her skin.

Even her horn looked dulled, almost on the verge of rusting over.

Berserker anxiously looked around, seeing the unconscious figures of the alchemists. The Heroic Spirit dragged herself along the muddy ground, ruining her dress even further as she looked for a particular person.

"M-Master?" She moaned, trembling as she pushed a body aside. "Whe-where are you...?"

Berserker twitched, looking around the area aimlessly.

"Well, this is a sad sight." Victor spoke up behind her. "I would pity you, if I didn't know what you were."

A rock shattered in Berserker's grip.

"M-mas-Father?" Berserker perked up, woodenly turning towards the old man. "No, yes, maybe?"

Victor Von Frankenstein grimly smiled, watching as her gaze wobbled.

"I need you. Perhaps for the first time in your miserable existence. Stand up, and take me to your Master." He walked up towards her, slamming the mace down in front of her.

"Ssssherou?" She warbled happily.

"Is there still enough of her in you to understand?" Her father grabbed hold of her face, looking ill at ease at having to do it. "Carry me to him. I'll take care of things for you from there. You can just lie there like a useless log once you ferry me."

Berserker moaned, staring at him blankly.

"Your mate is going to die if you don't stand up."

She jerked in place, standing up.

"That's right." Victor scowled, fighting back a shudder as Berserker took him in her cold, clammy arms. "You'll move for that, won't you?"

The Heroic Spirit leapt.

* * *

><p>Misaya's arm weakly trembled, reaching for towards her ear.<p>

* * *

><p>Fire crackled in the distance.<p>

"Now, don't all speak at once." Shirou said. "Why, that would be rude."

"What are you doing? Have you gone insane? Are you some kind of idiot?"

Sakura's question had all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. It made Shirou's nose crinkle in annoyance. The fact she was asking it at sword point made the older boy want to throw in the towel then and there.

"No." He curtly cut her off.

"His father was like this too," Kirei said, sounding a little amused. "No reasonable sort of logic. I was hoping he would turn out to be better. I'm still on the fence regarding whether he's worse or not now."

"Huh." Sakura would've nodded in agreement, but the tip of the Black Key was far too close. "He is pretty thick, isn't he."

"Shut up." Shirou barked, cutting off the comedy that was coming at his expense. "Why did we have to come this far?"

Sakura knew she had lost.

"Alright," It was easy to admit her sins now. Probably since the murderous father was in front of her. Or maybe that was in spite of him. "It started because I found out my brother had run off with our knowledge."

Shirou blinked, feeling ill at ease.

"Oh? Then I have to commend him. He must have seen what end was waiting for him. Was he going to flee to another magus' home?" The priest asked, curious how much had been stolen. Even a small amount of knowledge was priceless if it fell into the right hands.

Sakura sighed.

"Yes, his house." She threw an accusatory stare at Shirou.

"That," Shirou stumbled over his words. "I didn't, that is, you don't think I wanted to steal anything, do you?"

"I did," Sakura said. "And still do."

"That's insane!"

"How do you explain your servant?"

Shirou said nothing.

"That's right."

"I didn't steal your family's knowledge!" Shirou's voice boomed in outrage. "Shinji didn't know-"

"That's right, he didn't know! And that was for his own good. Those scraps were left there to deliberately keep him out of the way, but his life was in danger the very second a Magus outside our family touched it!"

"I didn't know that!"

It was descending into the ranting of two frustrated people now, venting everything in their hearts after endless tension. There was no haughtiness at this point, and no clever words. Only raw emotion was being expelled now.

"You tricked him - You tricked my stupid brother, and Shinji would be as good as dead when grandfather gets back home."

"Why didn't you just talk to me?!"

"Ha!" Sakura nearly spat. "What kind of lunatic does that? Even I know that much. It'd be like sticking my head down a lion's maw."

Kirei scoffed.

"That is rather foolish, young man." The priest turned his face just enough so Shirou could see the disapproving frown. "People have killed for less."

"You never saw me hurt Shinji. Even if he was a magus I would never do that to him. Why would I have done anything to hurt you?"

"He isn't one. You could have compelled him against his family. Used his weakness against him."

"Do you really think he's that weak?"

Sakura looked away, and said nothing.

"I had to make sure that the knowledge didn't spread." She defended herself. "Someone as old as my grandfather would have surely detected it if someone else was spreading the knowledge. I only did what I had to, and defended myself when the time came. Do what you will with me, but I'm done speaking now."

"You little..."

Kirei's expression fell the longer the conversation went in circles.

"Actions speak louder than words. Let's sum it all up, shall we? Sakura Matou burned your home to the ground, and tried to kill us all. I have helped you and protected you from her wrath when I had nothing to gain from it." Kirei words were as good as his fists at being devastating. "Shirou, while your betrayal was delightfully reminiscent of my dealings with your father, nostalgia will only allow me to forgive you so far. Let us finish these affairs, yes? Allow me to put down this menace to our livelihood and your life."

The rifle poked the back of Kirei's head.

"No."

Sakura looked up at Shirou, thoughtfully squinting at him.

"You're disappointing me, Emiya Shirou." The priest tensed, "I've just said-"

"I know what you said." Shirou agreed. "But it's still stupid. We don't need to keep things up now. You heard her, she did this for Shinji's sake. The knowledge is lost. A house isn't that important."

"What about your life?" The priest offered.

"...it's over." Shirou repeated.

"...you're dumb." Sakura whispered. "That doesn't make sense."

"Shinji does the thinking for me." He admitted.

Sakura fought a smile back.

Kirei grunted.

And that's when a figure crashed into their midst, sending the three flying like leaves in the midst of a storm.

* * *

><p>Rubble bounced off shattered concrete, tinkling as it fell into a deep crater created by a localized explosion, the water main beneath the fountain wildly sprayed water in every direction. The crater was quickly filling up.<p>

Kirei sighed, leveraging himself up. His last Black Key was unfortunately lost in the blast. A glance around the area showed his forces were still down.

Shirou was nowhere in sight, but the rifle that most likely had been trained on him was a twisted mass beneath some rebar.

Sakura was pinned beneath concrete. The girl snarled in frustration and fought to free herself, but she lacked any sort of leverage. The rubble pinning her noisily resettled thanks to her actions. It was probably crushing her, and would probably just turn her into pulp if no one gave her a helping hand.

Kirei turned away. The figures pulling themselves out of the crater were a more immediate concern. Especially the one leading the bedraggled Servant without an apparent care in the world.

"I become lax with age, Matthew." Kirei said, eyeing the mace the old man was holding onto without ill effects. "I wonder if my mentor felt this way in the end."

The traitor answered with a crooked grin.

"To err is human, Kotomine. I have been around long, and fooled better than you. Please don't underestimate yourself." He answered. "If it's any small consolation, I would have continued the course with you for many more decades if they hadn't appeared."

"I se-"

The words hadn't even finished when Kirei felt his chest get turned into a wet, sopping mess. Berserker stared at him with empty eyes as she pushed his shoulders, flinging him away from her and breaking them in the process. Her horn gleamed with black tar, from where she had pierced his heart.

The older man turned away from the motionless priest, heading straight for Sakura.

"Get away from me!"

"Now, that's rude." The old man straightened his crooked posture. He wagged a chiding finger at her. "I'm the one that came to free you."

"You killed him!"

"Would it be different if I had done it in the passion of the moment, like you?"

Sakura flinched.

The old man snapped his fingers, sending Berserker to start lifting the refuse off the young girl.

"...who are you?" She finally scrapped up the tattered remains of her dignity to ask. Her question got a piercing look.

"Has she gone dormant?" He hissed, slamming the mace against the floor. "No, none of that."

The noise unleashed was a combination of a low pitched whine and a warbling undulation, like a gong fading away. There was a little bit of a crackling beneath it all. Sort of like an electric tower at night.

Berserker seemed to wince in pain from the echo, lethargy fading a little from the action. The noise also made Sakura to take a sharp intake of breath too, feeling a strange pulse of sensation in her torso. For a moment, Sakura thought she felt her clothes shift on her body, but the  
>phantom sensation faded as quickly as it came.<p>

The old man's dark eyes took in Sakura's reaction as she plucked at the clothes she could reach, and nodded as if he had gotten an answer.

"I am Victor." He said, "Formerly of 'Reiroukan'."

Berserker hauled away the last of the rubble, woodenly taking a hold of Sakura. Her scarred up arms wrapped around the smaller girl, holding her tight. The magus tried to resist, but all her fight had been burnt away from successive trauma throughout the night.

"Where are you taking me?" Sakura could only make empty demands, and Victor favored her with a smile.

"Tokyo." He answered. "Fuyuki has worn out its welcome."

"My grandfather won't let this go," Sakura tried, but she wasn't very convinced. "He'll hunt you down."

"My, I hope he does." Victor chortled, walking ahead of them. The ground was uneven where he was moving, shifting thanks to the uneven layer of concrete. "I would be interested in seeing what methods he used to augment himself."

"Is she going to carry me like this the whole way?"

Victor chuckled, "Would you make it necessary?"

Sakura considered for a moment. She looked back at the wreckage around her. That boy was convinced they could have talked things out, but she didn't think anyone would forget that she had attacked.

"I don't think I have a choice," She answered. "This disaster might just get shifted to me."

Victor glanced off to the side, looking just like any other innocent grandfather.

His stained hands didn't seem to agree with his attitude.

"You're merciless, aren't you?" She sighed. "Well, I know what to expect from old men like you. Tell your new friend here to let me go. I'll come with you."

Sakura kicked at Berserker's arms. The older girl moaned, tightened her hold on the younger one, and shook her.

"I'm not your doll!"

"Berserker, drop it."

The servant readily did so, dreamily smiling when Sakura bounced off the ground.

"It?" Sakura clicked her tongue.

"No reason for pretenses, yes?" Victor shrugged. "Best to start with a honest and open relationship."

"After what you did to the priest?"

"Touche."

Sakura's knees rattled as she finally got up under her own power. She flashed a look at Berserker. There was probably some animosity hidden beneath that milky gaze, but it was concealed right now.

"That was the idiot's Servant." Speaking of which, where was Shirou Emiya. He better not be dead. "What did you do to her? She used to be more animated. Now she seems like any old Berserker."

"You did this. You cause so much damage that it has reverted to its original state of mind."

'Me?' Sakura thought, feeling an uncomfortable sensation the longer she stared at the empty gaze. 'I did that to her?'

"Worry not, I will make necessary repairs." Victor smiled, but it was not assuring in the least. "We need something to use for practice."

"Berserker isn't..." The hairs on Sakura's neck rose.

"It is the inferior model. The one you took into yourself was already superior. By the way, I am really overjoyed that you showed me such an interesting new phenomenon. You must tell me how you did it when we get home."

Berserker shoved forwards, causing Sakura to hobble ahead a few steps.

"Sheeerou?" The woman broke her silence, moving to lightly tug at Victor's sleeve. "Taigaa? Home?"

"Be patient." Victor shook her hands off, taking a few steps away from her.

Berserker smiled.

Sakura clenched a fist.

"Please keep up, or I'll have Berserker crush your legs and carry you like luggage, Miss Matou."

'If you're still alive, come over here and save your Servant!' Sakura winced, and started nursing her aching hand after she heard a crack.

* * *

><p>The march ended close to ten minutes later, with Victor leading Berserker and Sakura to an idling pickup. Parts of the vehicle had practically rusted away. Others seemed to have been cheaply soldered onto the frame.<p>

"...grandfather didn't believe in vaccination." Sakura said. "Will I need a tetanus shot after this?"

"All medical care will be provided for at no cost."

"Well, alright then."

Berserker looked at the truck for a few moments, and then patted herself. Whatever feelings of empathy she had with the thing remained unsaid.

"It isn't that bad." Victor growled back at them.

The engine backfired.

Sakura stared at the old man, eyebrow raised.

"Things were made tougher back then." He scoffed, pushing Sakura towards the driver seat. "Now get in through here."

Sakura saw an opportunity. She practically dove into the cabin and over discarded wrappers and plastic cups. Sweeping them aside, she reached for the lock, pulled it, and slammed her whole body against the passenger's side door.

"Gah!"

Victor's laughter wheezed out of his body, shrill notes breaking into his chuckles. Sakura spun towards him, glaring at the old man.

"Please, I have no one else I'd ever need to give a ride. Why would I need that extra door? I welded it closed a long time ago!"

"D-don't you know how dangerous that can be?!" Sakura squeaked. It was a weak argument, more to save face for having thought it was that easy. "This thing really is a moving death trap!"

"You can ride in the back, Samantha." Victor ordered, ignoring Sakura's flushed face. "Go intangible, I don't want us to be stopped on the way."

Berserker perked up, pulling away from where she was rubbing the truck.

"Samantha?"

Victor cursed, closing his eyes for a moment. "Put on your seat belt." He said, pushing Sakura further into the truck.

Rapid footfalls approached them.

"Oi!" A young man broke into their conversation, voice choking with phlegm or something else. "Not so fast."

"Shee!"

Sakura looked over her shoulder, face alighting in a relieved smile.

Victor shook once, and straightened up as he pulled his head out of the truck to face Shirou Emiya.

"You are quite resilient." He remarked, seeing the bloodied boy stride towards them.

Shirou shook his head.

"It was just putting one foot in front of the other."

"Then, why haven't you fled yet?" Victor smiled. "Just put one foot in front of the other in the opposite direction."

"You killed Father Kotomine!" Shirou's leaned forwards, stretching out a hand. "Give me back Berserker and Matou!"

"Saw that, did you?" Victor rubbed at his face, wrinkles winking. "Well, let's test how resilient, then."

The old man cleared his throat.

"Berserker, there's your mate." He cajoled her off the truck. "You know what you have to do, right?"

Berserker hungrily smiled, growling as she cracked her hands together. She reached for her dress, tearing one of the shoulders as she started pacing towards the redhead. The ground cracked beneath her feet.

"W-what?" Shirou stepped back.

Sakura was more vocal, lashing out with a kick towards Victor.

"You're disgusting!"

"Hmph, no." Victor got into the truck. "She'll tear him apart limb from limb."

He had seen it happen before.

His creature simply wasn't compatible with people, and would destroy them before long.

That was why she would never have her wish.

Berserker dove towards Shirou, catching him in the sternum and dragging them both to the ground. She greedily swiped at his tattered clothes, ripping handfuls of them off of him. The boy fought back, but it was impossible to challenge something like her.

One of his arms looked bent in the wrong way from where she could barely see over her trembling figure.

Sakura went white, and cast around the refuse. She saw a fork hidden beneath some burger wrappers, and grasped it with shaking hands.

"What?" Victor laughed.

She lunged, and with a burst of energy threw the fork through the glass next to his head. Part of the window shattered.

"S-Shirou, the command seal!" Sakura blurted out, but was backhanded away from hovering over Victor's lap.

Shirou pressed his back against the earth, trying to shove Berserker away from him. In between flurries of action, he caught a look at the seal imprinted on the back of his hand, and did the only thing he could.

"I order you to take Sakura and yourself to safety!"

The Command Seal blazed to life.

"No!" Victor shouted, slamming Sakura against her seat as he floored the pedal.

Berserker moaned, fingertips bloody as they pulled away from Shirou's chest. The servant bound off his bared form, twisting and rushing head long towards the truck. Three bounding steps towards it, she simply vanished.

The truck was slammed off course a second later, and the driver's door was torn off its hinges. A stare of disbelief and open mouth was the only thing Sakura could do as she was ripped out of the truck, and whisked away to safety. Victor's arm was pulped, ripped away and taken with Sakura. Blood sprayed the inside of truck's windshield.

Victor let out a howl, jerking the wheel.

"Damn you!"

The truck almost flipped over onto its side, metal crunching as it spun at high speeds to head towards Shirou.

"It's your fault!"

Shirou rolled onto his side, staring up at the incoming truck.

A pair of cords flew towards him.

"Grab it!" Shirou grasped them tightly, getting dragged out beneath the wheels. The teenager only saw a brief look of the same man he had helped earlier - wasn't he the firefighter at his house earlier this week?

The truck sped up as it took a tight corner, moving to chase.

Flames splashed against its windshield, courtesy of two alchemists barely keeping themselves up thanks to the grace of the heavens.

One of them was the blonde sniper, and the other...

"Get back here!" Misaya snarled, furiously directing the stream of flame after the truck with tears in her eyes. It was already speeding away from them, parts of it still aflame.

The light was intense, the edges of everything bleeding together for Shirou.

"Kid, focus one me." He gently pushed Shirou back to the ground. That guy's hands were so big. "No, don't try to move."

Darkness claimed his vision.

"Oh shit," Whatever the alchemist saw made his dusky complexion pale. He boomed over his shoulder. "Misaya, drop that damn thing and get over here!"

Why was he being so loud?

It was hurting his ears.

Shirou felt like sleeping, and closed his eyes.

* * *

><p>"Who can be knocking at this hour?"<p>

Clomping of feet against a wooden floor just shy of needing maintenance.

"I heard you the first time!" Wood groaned as a door was angrily thrown open. "Oh! I-I'm sorry."

A sharp intent of breath.

"Who did this to you?!"

"I am calling in a favor," Heavy breathing, labored and a little too rapid. "I need the use of a workshop. I have been exposed. There is precious little time before the noose is tightened. I must make it to Tokyo."

"Of course, come in! I'll do whatever is necessary..."

A gusty sigh.

"Thank you, Miss Tohsaka. You have done more than your fair share over the years, and I will remember when the time comes." Two sets of footsteps retreating across the creaky floor. "We will soon enter the annals of history."

* * *

><p>Hypothesis Arc - End<p>

A/N: Trying something new with the scene breaks. It's easier on me this way when it comes time to upload, but I don't want it to affect readability. Tell me if you want me to keep going with this or do you guys want the line breaks.

Have a great day.


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